German conservative launches 3rd bid to lead Merkel's party

A conservative one-time rival of Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined the race to become the new leader of the outgoing German leader’s party, making his third bid for the job in three years

BERLIN -- A prominent conservative has joined the race to become the leader of outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, making his third bid for the job.

Friedrich Merz, 66, was nominated for the leadership by his local branch of the center-right Christian Democratic Union on Monday evening, a move that was widely expected. He is the third candidate in the race to succeed Armin Laschet, who led the party to defeat and its worst-ever election result in September.

Norbert Roettgen, a former environment minister who has chaired parliament's foreign policy committee in recent years, and Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, threw their hats in the ring on Friday. Both are centrists, while Merz has generally appealed more to traditional conservatives.

The CDU, which is expected to go into opposition once a new three-party coalition government is in place, has decided to hold a ballot of its entire roughly 400,000-strong membership on the party leadership.