Laschet humble in defeat at young conservative party convention

“I carry the responsibility for this result,” Armin Laschet told the convention of the youth organisation of his conservative CDU. Laschet must prepare his party for opposition, as a “traffic light” coalition without the conservatives is looking increasingly likely.

On Friday, the party leadership teams of the social democrats SPD, liberal FDP and the Greens had given the start of three-way in-depth coalition talks the go-ahead.

The Greens’ party committees okayed the talks in a fast-track party convention with a large majority on Sunday.

“We can be very, very pleased with this paper,” said Anton Hofreiter, co-chief of the Greens in parliament, commenting on the paper that outlines Germany’s future government.

For the conservatives, the loss at the 26 September elections continues to be a divisive event. “[The conservative party] is insolvency-prone and a political reorganisation case,” said Friedrich Merz, a long-time Angela Merkel rival who is expected to make another bid for the party leadership on Friday.

“We as a Union must never again be dependent on a face,” said Ralph Brinkhaus, leader of the CDU in parliament, on Sunday.

Bavarian minister-president and CSU chief Markus Söder was the only top-level conservative politician to be absent from the convention of the party’s young talents. Söder is understood to have played a part in the conservative’s election loss, and the hall erupted in boos at the mention of his name.

(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer  | EURACTIV.de)