ROUNDUP: Brinkhaus wants to have a say in the question of the candidate for chancellor | message

BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus has spoken out against a too early decision on the question of the candidacy for chancellor and has announced that he wants to participate in the decision. “Experience shows that an early decision is not automatically advantageous. The two chairmen discuss this at the Union, and the chairman of the joint parliamentary group should also have a say. We should then make the decision quickly and leanly,” said the CDU politician of the “Rheinische Post” (Saturday). He himself would be very happy if the group asked him again next autumn to be their chairman. “I have a five-year perspective,” he said on Deutschlandfunk. He wants to work with the new party leader not only in this but also in the next legislative period.

The CDU wants to elect a new chairman in mid-January. Besides ex-Union faction leader Friedrich Merz, NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet and the floodplain expert Norbert Rttgen want to become CDU chairman.

Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier spoke out in favor of deciding on the candidacy for chancellor only in the spring. “From my point of view, after the state elections in Baden-Wrttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, there will be enough time to clarify who will lead the Union into the federal election in 2021,” said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany (RND / Saturday) ./ zeh / DP / nas