In Merkels party election blow triggers soul searching on future without her

Fabrizio Bensch Reuters Christian Democratic Union leader Armin Laschet holds a news conference in Berlin on Sept. 27, a day after the German general elections that saw his party come in second behind the Social Democrats.

BERLIN â€" The worst election result in its history has triggered a reckoning for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, as its members openly criticize its new leader and call for a fundamental reset as Merkel moves toward retirement.

A cacophony of condemnation of party leader Armin Laschet has grown in recent days â€" not only over its second-place election showing, but also over his actions in the wake of it.

In the hours following the vote, the embattled candidate to take over from Merkel had insisted on trying to build a government coalition with his party at the top, despite being the runner-up.

Senior party members called on him to be “humble” and stand aside to let the center-left Social Democrats â€" who came in two points ahead â€" have the first shot at making a government led by their chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz.

[What you need to know about Olaf Scholz, the next possible German chancellor]

Now, some in the party are questioning whether Laschet should be the one to take over the chancellery in the unlikely event that Scholz fails to make a coalition and the Christian Democrats can.

“He should make clear that he lost the election,” said Michael Meister, a veteran parliamentarian with the Christian Democrats. “And he should make clear that he should not try to become chancellor.”

Laschet, the outgoing leader of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, had already been in the crosshairs for many in his party. His campaign was widely seen as the crux of the Christian Democratic Union’s election woes. Even though the polls had pointed to impending disaster, the storied party of Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s first postwar chancellor, is still reeling.

Kay Nietfeld

Reuters

Christian Democratic Union leader Armin Laschet and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk before a party leadership meeting in Berlin on Sept. 13.

The soul-searching is likely to go deeper than an examination of what went wrong on the campaign trail. Parliament members and party officials say the Christian Democrats are long overdue for a discussion on what the party stands for following Merkel’s 16 years in power, during which she shifted the party further to the left on issues such as migration and economic priorities.

The party also has been shedding voters for years. The election results have sharpened fears about losing its status as the “big-tent” party for the country’s conservatives. The lines between the top two parties have become so blurred that Scholz managed to position himself as the continuity candidate from Merkel, despite being from a different party.

[Analysis: Germany enters a period of post-Merkel uncertainty]

Also under the microscope: the process for picking the chancellor candidate, which this time around resulted in a pick who was unpopular among party members and voters.

“From my point of view, the situation is dramatic,” Daniel Günther, the premier of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said in an interview with the Kieler Nachrichten newspaper. “A [Christian Democatic Union] that gets less than 25 percent naturally needs reform.”

Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz

Bloomberg News

Olaf Scholz, candidate for chancellor with the Social Democrats.

The Christian Democrats came in with 24 percent in the elections, compared with about 26 percent for the Social Democrats.

Such is the unrest in the conservative bloc that “if we wanted to call the Union at the moment, I would not immediately know which phone number to dial,” quipped Stephan Thomae, a politician with the pro-deregulation Free Democrats â€" which along with Germany’s Green Party have emerged as kingmakers in the post-election coalition negotiations.

Laschet has lost the legitimacy of the party, but removing him now could result in a “chaotic situation” while coalition negotiations are ongoing, Meister said.

Scholz has said that he hopes to be able to make a government before Christmas.

And while exploratory talks between the Christian Democrats and other parties are lined up, there is growing consensus in Laschet’s party that it should try to form a coalition only if the Social Democrats come up short.

Scholz will need to bring on both the Greens and the Free Democrats to make a “traffic light” majority, named after the combined party colors.

[Analysis: Germany’s election cast U.S. politics in harsh light]

He faces an uphill struggle. The Greens’ policy positions meld more easily with the Social Democrats but not so the views of pro-business Free Democrats, who criticize prohibitive measures to cut carbon emissions and want to pare down the welfare state.

The Free Democrats have said they prefer the Christian Democrats for a coalition, but Scholz still has the clout of coming out on top in the elections, an edge that analysts say gives the party more likelihood of success.

Laschet is likely to last as long as government negotiations do, said Jürgen Falter, a politics professor at the University of Mainz. “They still need him because there’s a chance the traffic light will fail,” he said, but in the party, “there’s much dissatisfaction and in a way turmoil because of the very bad electoral result.”

On Sunday evening, following the first exit polls, Laschet had promised to do “everything possible” to build a ruling coalition himself. The following day, when the results were in, he appeared equally set on conjuring a victory from the ashes of defeat, saying that the Social Democrats also couldn’t draw a clear mandate from the result.

Thilo Schmuelgen

Reuters

Workers remove an election campaign poster for Scholz in Cologne, Germany, on Sept. 27.

“There was astonishment in many parts of the party,” Carsten Körber, the newly appointed head of the Christian Democrats’ wing in the eastern state of Saxony, said of Laschet’s actions, which he said clashed with his “understanding of democracy.”

Some pundits have been equally incredulous.

“Armin Laschet obviously lives in a different, very unique reality,” opinion writer Stefan Kuzmany wrote in Der Spiegel.

But it has become increasingly difficult for Laschet to stay there.

Criticism has mounted, including during what attendees described as an “intense” first meeting of parliamentarians from the Christian Democrats and its smaller sister party, the Christian Social Union, on Tuesday.

With the party mindful of the chaos it might unleash, there were no “serious” demands for Laschet’s resignation, Körber said. “However, there was widespread criticism of his campaigning.”

And Laschet suffered another defeat when he failed in his efforts to postpone a vote on who should be the party’s parliamentary group leader â€" a powerful position if the Christian Democrats enter the opposition, and one Laschet had eyed for himself.

Körber thinks Laschet is finally grasping the weakness of his position. “Armin Laschet is now gradually arriving in reality,” he said.

One party official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters, agreed: “Obviously the strategy of the CDU is to be a bit more humble and defensive.”

While being in opposition is not in the DNA of the Christian Democrats, it could be a better place for the party to work out its post-election malaise, said Körber, who remained in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, but blames Laschet as the “undisputed key factor” in the wider electoral loses.

Körber’s district, like nine of the other 16 seats in the eastern state of Saxony, went to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD party. But overall, the AfD won just 10 percent of the vote, down three points from elections four years ago.

And Körber doesn’t see the election rout as triggering a lurch to the right for the Christian Democrats. That’s something the party has tried before only to shed voters from the center.

Still, factions with the party will be maneuvering.

“You have to be careful that this process of renewal does not rip and tear the party apart,” he said.

Florian Neuhof contributed to this report.

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