 "Race to lead Angela Merkel's party in German opposition takes shape")
A former German environment minister announced his second run for the leadership of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right party on Friday as the race to lead it in opposition started to take shape.
The Christian Democratic Union has decided to hold a ballot of its entire roughly 400,000-strong membership on who will take over after incumbent Armin Laschet led it to defeat and its worst-ever national election result in September.
Nominations opened on Saturday but it took nearly a week for Norbert Roettgen, 56, to become the first officially to declare his candidacy. Roettgen finished third when Laschet was elected in January.
Roettgen, 56, served as environment minister a decade ago and headed the foreign affairs committee in the last German parliament.
We lost votes and elections in the center, and we will win back these votes in the center, Roettgen told reporters in Berlin.
He said that the party must fight for the young generation and argued that the CDU and its leader must embody competence and credibility in climate policy.
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Roettgen argued that the CDU needs a fundamental renewal to preserve its status as a major party.
Two more contenders are in sight: Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, appears set to make a bid for the party leadership, and conservative favorite Friedrich Merz is widely expected to make his third bid in three years after narrowly losing two previous contests. Outgoing Health Minister Jens Spahn, who was considered a likely contender, has ruled himself out.
This contest will be the third since Merkel stepped down as party chairwoman in late 2018 and announced she wouldn't seek a fifth term as chancellor.
Both Laschet and predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer were narrowly elected by party congresses after three-way battles for the leadership.
Both struggled to impose their authority. This time, local party bosses demanded a say for the wider membership.
The two-party Union bloc, in which the CDU is by far the bigger party, finished behind the center-left Social Democrats in the election with only 24.1 per cent of the vote. The Social Democrats are negotiating with two smaller parties to form a coalition government, which they hope will take office in early December, sending the Union into opposition.
A first round of voting on the new leader, by online and mail-in ballot, will be held in early December. If a runoff ballot is required, that would be completed in mid-January. A party congress January 21-22 would officially sign off on the result.