Who will be the next CDU chairman?

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Wolfgang Schäuble endorsed Merz, which should be a huge boost to his chances of winning on Friday. He‘s also supported by Günther Öttinger, Roland Koch and Petra Roth.

One should be mindful of the fact that Merkel destroyed both Schäuble's and Merz's careers in the early 2000's when she occupied the former's post as party leader and the latter's post as parliamentary group leader.
Schäuble is reported to have arranged Merz's candidacy months before, which can be seen as an act of revenge.
Furthermore, Merz, Koch and anglicist Günther Oettinger (with Oe) belonged to the Andenpakt, an interest group of about twenty conservative men within the CDU who - vainly - wanted to thwart Merkel's 2002 candidacy for the chancellorship.

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Does anybody of our CDU members know what votes will be counted in the first round?

• Will invalid votes count?
• Will there be the possibility of abstention on the ballots?
• If not, will blank votes be considered as abstentions?
• Will non-votes count, so that a candidate needs the majority of all 1,001 delegates (comparable with the election of the chancellor, who needs the majority of all Bundestag members in the first and second round)?

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So, how many candidates there are actually?

Only these three. In order to have become an official candidate for the chairmanship, you must have been nominated by the federal CDU, or one of their state, regional, county or local associations.
It is reported that there were about twenty applicants, but only AKK, Merz, and Spahn received a nomination from her state party CDU Saar, the chapter in Fulda, and his county association CDU Borken, respectively.

In case of Merz's nomination, it was not his own county association, not even his own state party which nominated him. Merz' home county is Hochsauerland County in North Rhine-Westphalia. He was, however, nominated by the CDU chapter of the Hessian city of Fulda.

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ENDORSEMENT TIME!!!
There are seven official subsidiary organizations within the CDU/CSU:

Women's Union (FU; 155,000 members)
Young Union (JU; CDU/CSU's joint youth organization; 110,000 members; very powerful)
Seniors' Union (SU; 54,000 members)
Middle-Class and Trade Association (MIT; 30,000 members; very powerful)
Christian Democratic Employees' Association (CDA; many members)
East and Middle German Association (OMV)
Local-politics Association (KPV)

The Women's Union is the only sub-organization that has already committed itself. Guess to whom.
AKK also got the endorsement of the CDU Saarland state sub-organizations JU, FU, CDA and MIT.
The Seniors' Union is reported to endorse AKK, too.

There are some smaller CDU associations like the archconservative such as the "Values Union" or the "Berlin Circle" and the neoliberal Economic Advisory Council, all of which support Merz's candidacy.

There's another endorsement:

The Middle-Class and Trade Association (MIT) - unsurprisingly - endorsed Merz.

Wolfgang Schäuble endorsed Merz, which should be a huge boost to his chances of winning on Friday. He‘s also supported by Günther Öttinger, Roland Koch and Petra Roth.

Tobias Hans, Daniel Günther and Thomas de Maiziere are notable AKK supporters.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier - probably Merkel's most loyal flunky - has endorsed AKK, both of whose home states is the Saarland, simultaneously criticizing the "dam break" caused by Schäuble's foray.
Altmaier said he was surprised at Schäuble's public endorsement for Merz.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul has also endorsed AKK.

Both Altmaier and Reul explained their decision by stating that they want the CDU to remain a "center party".

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"A majority among valid votes cast ..."

https://faz.net/aktuell/politik/merkels-erbe/so-bestimmt-die-cdu-die-nachfolge-angela-merkels-15865438.html

So, abstentions and invalid & blank votes will not be included.

Do you happen to know if there will be polling booths, like at this year's SPD party convention where Nahles was elected? It does make a difference regarding the secrecy if you can make your choice without your neighbor looking at your ballot or not.

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"A majority among valid votes cast ..."

https://faz.net/aktuell/politik/merkels-erbe/so-bestimmt-die-cdu-die-nachfolge-angela-merkels-15865438.html

So, abstentions and invalid & blank votes will not be included.

Do you happen to know if there will be polling booths, like at this year's SPD party convention where Nahles was elected? It does make a difference regarding the secrecy if you can make your choice without your neighbor looking at your ballot or not.

There were not.

Pardon?

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All voters:



CDU voters:



Gender split (all voters):



Should Merkel remain in office till the end of this legislative period?

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Do you happen to know if there will be polling booths, like at this year's SPD party convention where Nahles was elected? It does make a difference regarding the secrecy if you can make your choice without your neighbor looking at your ballot or not.

There will be partion walls between the places of the Delegates. The election is secret.

Exactly. I just wanted to write that. Each delegate gets a foldable table booth made of paperboard, as pictured below:

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I don't like the fact that Merkel is allowed to deliver her final speech before the vote.

She could use some remarks to influence the delegates in their voting behaviour.

Merkel should speak after the vote.

She is speaking right now.

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1,600 international journalists are attending the convention.

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Over 10 minutes of applause and standing ovations for Mutti! 🙌🏻 👏🏻

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AKK is holding her candidacy speech right now.

At what time will the results come in?

I guess at 5 pm.

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There's one certain word each of the three candidates used in their speeches: Milchkanne ("milk can"). What a hard dissing against their fellow party member Education Minister Anja Karliczek. 😝

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At what time will the results come in?

The election has begun.

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At what time will the results come in?

The election has ended and the votes are being tallied.

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Results of the 1st round:

AKK    450 45.05%
Merz   392 39.24%
Spahn 157 15.72%

999 votes (out of 1,001 delegates)
0 invalid votes

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Results of the 1st round:

AKK    450 45.05%
Merz   392 39.24%
Spahn 157 15.72%

999 votes (out of 1,001 delegates)
0 invalid votes

Should be very good news for Merz. This is getting exciting.

I agree. AKK is toast - and unemployed as of now as she has no Bundestag or Landtag mandate and as she will lose her job as general secretary.

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Results of the runoff:

AKK   517  51.75%
Merz  482  48.25%

999 votes (out of 1,001 delegates)
999 valid votes

0 invalid votes
0 abstentions

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https://www.thelocal.de/20150603/state-leader-equates-gay-marriage-with-incest

So f**ing woke.

Merz is a staunch homophobe, too. When Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit came out of the closet in 2001, Merz said canvassing for votes by exploiting one's homosexuality offended against the 6th article of the Basic Law, which is supposed to protect the heterosexual conception of family and marriage.

LUL

Perhaps Spahn's supporters didn't want to spend their taxes for one additional Hartz IV recipient.

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Before posing the question who may become the next CDU chancellery candidate, the question who will succeed AKK as general secretary must be solved. Young Union chairman Paul Ziemiak is being discussed.
Furthermore, AKK's deputies plus the CDU presidium members are to be elected.

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Still AKK. Wtf.

Do you know what moniker the German media gave AKK?

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Worth noting that electing the more conservative Merz was far from a guarantee that it would stop the bleeding towards AfD.

Exactly! A Merz-led CDU would be a much bigger menace to the FDP than to the AfD.
The rural proletariat of East Germany would be repulsed by Merz

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Now I want AKK to become chancellor, because I want the foreign news anchors to pronounce her name (ours will have to deal with Amy Klobuchar's name without giggling as a quid pro quo), plus I want to see Donald twitter her name.

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Now I want AKK to become chancellor, because I want the foreign news anchors to pronounce her name (ours will have to deal with Amy Klobuchar's name without giggling as a quid pro quo), plus I want to see Donald twitter her name.

He would just use AKK

Probably. But I am afraid that he would call her "Chancellor AKK" when he meets her in person also (including a Freudian slip).

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Do you happen to know if there will be polling booths, like at this year's SPD party convention where Nahles was elected? It does make a difference regarding the secrecy if you can make your choice without your neighbor looking at your ballot or not.

There will be partion walls between the places of the Delegates. The election is secret.

Exactly. I just wanted to write that. Each delegate gets a foldable table booth made of paperboard, as pictured below:

#Tischwahlkabine is trending on Twitter.
The pics and posts tweeted under that hashtag are hilarious. 😂
A political pundit even proposed it for word of the year.