CSU leader Söder on candidacy for chancellor: “I would not shirk my position”

The CDU and CSU actually wanted to agree on a candidate for chancellor in late summer. But now CSU leader Söder has already come into play. Is there a risk of another dispute like in 2021?

CSU chairman Markus Söder has declared himself ready to run for chancellor for the Union. “For me, being prime minister is the best job, but I would not shy away from taking responsibility for our country,” said Söder at the Gillamoos folk festival in Abensberg, Bavaria.

However, the Bavarian Prime Minister qualified the statement. A CSU politician only has a chance of becoming a candidate for chancellor if the CDU asks him to. He will definitely reach an agreement with CDU leader Friedrich Merz. “We are an axis,” Söder stressed.

Merz: “No news value”

Months ago, the Union decided that it would choose its candidate for chancellor for the 2025 federal election in late summer. Merz reacted calmly, however. Söder’s statement had “no news value”. The CDU and CSU would still make the decision on the joint candidate for chancellor in late summer. The process had only just begun.

In 2021, Söder lost to the then CDU leader Armin Laschet in a bitter internal Union power struggle for the candidacy for chancellor. Laschet lost the federal election to the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). In parts of the CDU, the CSU leader is held partly responsible for the Union’s election defeat in 2021 because he did not fully support the then candidate for chancellor, Laschet.

Different from 2021?

Such a dispute will not be repeated, Söder said now. “It will definitely be different than in 2021.” Back then, he said, it was “simply the wrong candidate.”

Söder emphasized to the CSU supporters at the festival that he and Merz are a team. “It’s not about who does it, it’s about what comes out in the end.” The CDU and CSU are “more united than ever.”