Merkel Critic Leads Loyalist in CDU Race, According to Poll

(Bloomberg) -- A vocal critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel outpaced a party ally in the race to become leader of her Christian Democratic Union, an opinion survey showed on Thursday.

Friedrich Merz, Merkel’s one-time arch rival, led Armin Laschet, the premier of Germany’s most-populous state, 35% to 24%, according to a poll for broadcaster ARD. Among CDU supporters, 40% backed Merz and 32% supported Laschet.

Laschet, a CDU moderate who has backed Merkel’s agenda, got a boost in his bid to lead the party last month when he joined forces with a conservative standard bearer, Health Minister Jens Spahn. But the ARD poll showed Laschet may have a challenge in securing the conservative base.

Merz, who made a failed bid to succeed Merkel as party leader against Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018, has pledged to shift the party to the right. Kramp-Karrenbauer shocked the party last month by abandoning plans to become chancellor, triggering the fresh race.

Norbert Roettgen, the CDU chairman of the foreign affairs committee who is also running, won backing from 13% of CDU supporters and 12% of the public at large, the poll showed.

Delegates will choose a new leader at an Apr. 25 party conference in Berlin.

The ARD poll surveyed 1,002 people from March 2-3 and has a margin of error of as much as 3.1 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Richard Bravo

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