Germany: Merkel's party chooses conservative Merz as leader

Members of Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader

BERLIN -- Members of Germany's biggest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, have chosen prominent conservative Friedrich Merz as its new leader, the party said Friday.

Merz, making his third run for the CDU's top post, beat two centrist contenders and won a strong mandate — taking 62.1% support in a ballot of the party's membership. A party congress next month will have to sign off officially on the membership vote, but that should only be a formality.

Armin Laschet, the CDU's leader since January, is stepping down after leading the two-party Union bloc to its worst-ever election result in September, winning only 24.1% of the vote. The bloc, which the CDU dominates, was narrowly beaten by the center-left Social Democrats of new Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Merz, 66, has experience of being an opposition leader. He led the center-right group in parliament from 2000 to 2002, when Merkel pushed him out of that job. He left parliament in 2009, later practicing as a lawyer and heading the supervisory board of investment manager BlackRock’s German branch.