Conservative candidate Laschet drops in polls, presents future cabinet

Faced with a nosedive in the polls, German chancellor hopeful Armin Laschet (CDU) has decided to lift the veil on his future cabinet.

The move comes amid calls from within his conservative party for Laschet to take a step back and rely on the expertise of his team. The candidate had previously confirmed millionaire and former rival Friedrich Merz to be part of his cabinet.

Following Laschet’s sub-par performance at a three-way TV debate between candidates on Sunday, Laschet presented a paper on energy on Monday, called “a renewables-turbo paper”.

Presenting the paper, Laschet brought conservative MPs Andreas Jung and Thomas Heilmann, as well as young-blood Wiebke Winter into the spotlight and implicitly confirmed their position in his potential future cabinet.

The paper itself is likely an attempt to shore up the conservative’s credibility on renewable energy policy, dented by their party being in power during Germany’s initially booming and then starkly faltering expansion of on-shore wind energy.

With less than a month remaining until the 26 September election, Laschet now appears to be under pressure to present as many members of his future cabinet as possible.