The Union faction in the Bundestag has committed itself to Friedrich Merz at the top until the next election date. The MPs from the CDU and CSU voted for the CDU party leader with a large majority. Approval fell slightly lower than the start of the legislature.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz was confirmed as chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag with a slightly smaller majority than in his first election in mid-February. After a good seven months in office, the 66-year-old received 154 of 179 votes in the re-election required by the statute, according to information from faction circles. After the Union calculates abstentions, Merz got 87 percent of the votes of the CDU and CSU deputies.
The Union faction elected Merz as its chairman in mid-February. At that time, the Sauerland received 162 of 186 votes cast (89.5 percent), there were 19 no votes and 5 abstentions. The CDU and CSU have a total of 197 MPs. Merz held the office of parliamentary group leader from 2000 to 2002.
The agreement on the continuation of the parliamentary group between the CDU and CSU stipulates that the election for offices in the parliamentary group takes place at the beginning of the electoral period for one year. After that – as on Tuesday – the candidates for the offices will then be elected for the remainder of the electoral period.
The 66-year-old Merz was elected CDU chairman for the third time in January. In the years before, he was only at a disadvantage against Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and later against Armin Laschet. He withdrew from the Bundestag in 2009 to pursue a career in business and only returned to parliament in the 2021 federal elections.
