Possible successor to Angela Merkel fails in local elections

The current prime minister of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Armin Laschet, is presented as a candidate to continue the German Chancellor's policy and in local elections he hoped to improve the outcome of the Democratic Union (CDU) and thus strengthen the chances of taking the party in the party's December elections.

But television release polls WDR shows that support for the CDU has dropped 1.5 percent since the last local elections held in 2014 to a total of 36 percent.

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Research shows that voters consider Laschet's management of the COVID-19 pandemic to be bad in this much populated German federal state.

More than 14 million people had the right to vote in the city council elections Sunday.

The CDU holds a party congress in December to elect a new leader, and the winner may be the next German Chancellor.

Merkel, who has been in power since 2005, has announced that she will not run again in federal elections, which should be held late until October 2021.

Today's elections show Laschet has a difficult way ahead if she wants to become prime minister. A majority of Germans, 31 percent, want Markus Soeder, leader of CSU's bavarese sister party, for the next Chancellor, showed a survey by Bild am Sonntag in early September.

Second place is Health Minister Jens Spahn with 14 percent support, third is Friedrich Merz with 13 percent, and in fourth place Laschetet by eight percent.

Markus Soeder himself has so far shown no interest in the Chancellor's post, so he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that his “country is in Bhavari”.