Merz is aiming for a second time period in workplace: “I plan to do this for a long time” | EUROtoday

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is aiming for a second time period in workplace after the federal election deliberate for 2029. “I plan to do this for a long time,” stated the 70-year-old on the political Ash Wednesday in Trier, declaring that his father turned 102 in January.

Addressing the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU’s prime candidate for the state election on March twenty second, Gordon Schnieder, he stated: “When we find ourselves here again, let’s say in five years, then I would like both of us together, you as Prime Minister, me in office as Federal Chancellor, both of us, to look back and say: Those were hard times, but we had back then in the CDU in Germany and in this federal government and in this state government, led by Gordon Schnieder, made the right decisions.”

Merz turned 70 on November 11th and is the oldest Chancellor since Konrad Adenauer, who left office in 1963 at the age of 87. On Friday he wants to be elected party leader for the third time at the CDU party conference in Stuttgart.

Linnemann: “He has the genes”

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann also recently confirmed that Merz had the best qualifications for a long political career. “He said it himself: His father is over 100 years old, his mother just under,” said the CDU general secretary to “Stern”. “So he has the genes to be able to do politics for a very long time.”

However, the CDU general secretary considers a debate about a renewed candidacy for chancellor to be premature. When asked the relevant question, Linnemann replied: “I assume so, but that is not a question that will arise in 2026.”

The CDU leadership committees are preparing for the two-day federal party conference in Stuttgart on Thursday, which begins with the board elections on Friday. Merz is running as the only candidate for the presidency for the third time in a row. He was elected at an online party conference in 2022 with 94.6 percent of the vote and was later confirmed with 95.3 percent by postal vote. In 2024 it came to 89.8 percent.

Given the rocky start to his term in office, many in the CDU believe he will not be able to achieve that again. On the other hand, with five state elections coming up, delegates could rally behind their leader to send a sign of unity.

The result of CSU chairman Markus Söder is considered a benchmark for speculation, with 83.6 percent being his worst result to date last December. There are now some at Merz who say: the main thing is better than Söder.