Laschet, Merz in runoff to succeed Merkel as German CDU party leader

Merkel, the continent's predominant politician and a consistent winner with German voters since taking office in 2005, has said she will not run again. By tradition, that person is usually - though not always - the chancellor candidate for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the conservative bloc is on course to win September's federal ballot.

Centrist Armin Laschet and arch-conservative Friedrich Merz went into a final round of voting to lead Germany's Christian Democrats, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to the results of a party vote held on Saturday. Merz won the backing of 385 party delegates, closely followed by Laschet with 380 votes. The third candidate, foreign policy expert Norbert Roettgen, was eliminated with 224 votes.

Out of 1,001 delegates, 992 voted and three abstained. The two candidates will now go into a run-off vote. At stake is the leadership of Europe's biggest economy. Merkel, the continent's predominant politician and a consistent winner with German voters since taking office in 2005, has said she will not run again.

By tradition, that person is usually - though not always - the chancellor candidate for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the conservative bloc is on course to win September's federal ballot. However, polls show Markus Soeder, the CSU leader, is the conservative most favoured by voters. Some CDU lawmakers want dynamic Health Minister Jens Spahn to run for chancellor, though he has backed Laschet for the party leadership.