Christian Democratic Union of Germany

The leaders of Germany's biggest conservative party will support Armin Laschet to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor candidate at the next election.

CSU's Markus Söder told the party leadership meeting that he was against a hasty decision, and called for talks with the CDU at the end of the week.

North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) State Premier Armin Laschet called for a harder lockdown on Monday as Germany struggles to contain a third wave of the coronavirus. The chairman of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and one of her potential successor as chancellor said that Germany needed harder lockdown measures to stem a rise in cases of Covid-19.

"We need a bridge lockdown. We have to build a bridge to the point in time when a lot of people are vaccinated," Laschet told.

After massive criticism, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has decided to put a stop to the extended 'Easter lockdown' that had been planned to go from Maundy Thursday to Easter Monday. This was announced by Merkel on Wednesday in a meeting with the Minister-Presidents of the federal states, which was convened at short notice, as SPIEGEL learned from several participants. At the federal-state roundtable on Monday, Merkel and the heads of the states had initially agreed on a comprehensive cut over the Easter holidays.

Voters in Baden-Württemberg continue to back the Greens. According to the projections of infratest dimap, Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann's party landed at 32.4 percent - 2.1 percentage points more than the record result of 2016 with 30.3 percent. Kretschmann was pleased with the good results of his party. "Greens and Baden-Württemberg - that goes well together," said the 72-year-old. He understands the result "as a mandate to continue to serve our state as Minister-President". He accepts this mandate with "great gratitude and humility".

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Social Democrats remain the strongest political force despite slight losses. According to Infratest dimap projections, the party headed by Minister President Malu Dreyer achieved 36 per cent. Although this is slightly worse than five years ago (36.2 per cent), it is enough for another clear victory in the state election. For the seventh time in a row since 1991, the SPD is the strongest party in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Nikolas Löbel, a lawmaker from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), stepped down on Monday over a government deal to procure face masks.

"In order to avoid further damage to my party, I am resigning my Bundestag mandate with immediate effect," Löbel said.

Last year, CDU MP Nikolas Löbel brokered deals with Corona protection masks to German companies and earned more than a quarter of a million euros in commissions, according to information from Business Insider. According to the report, Löbel offered potential customers in Germany "mask deliveries reliably and quickly from China via Bricon Technology GmbH, based in Wurmlingen". Löbel had contact with this member of the People's Chamber after he had written to the Chinese raw materials company Sinopec, which sells Corona protective masks on a large scale all over the world.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expects that the EU vaccination passport can be developed by the summer. "The political target is to achieve this in the next few months, I have spoken of three months," the CDU politician said on Thursday after the EU video summit.

The certificate is intended to create the possibility of granting advantages to vaccinated persons, if necessary. "Everyone has pointed out today that this is not an issue at all at the moment, given the low vaccination coverage of the population. But one has to prepare oneself," Merkel emphasized. She added that the vaccination certificate alone would not determine who could travel. "No political decisions have been made about this at all yet."

The German government has purchased a new Covid-19 antibody-based Corona drug. German Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has stated that "Starting next week, the monoclonal antibodies will be used in Germany as the first country in the EU. Initially in university clinics," and added that "The federal government has purchased 200,000 doses for 400 million euros,"

The killing of millions of male chicks in laying hen farming in Germany will be banned from the beginning of 2022. The German government has passed a draft law by Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU). At the end of the year, this common practice is to be ended. Until now, male chicks have been killed immediately after hatching because raising them is economically unviable.

Until now Covid-19 samples in German laboratories have rarely been tested for possible new virus variants. This is now to change with a search obligation for laboratories.

The German government is obliging laboratories to specifically search for highly contagious mutations of the coronavirus. This is provided for in a regulation on gene sequencing presented by Health Minister Jens Spahn. Accordingly, the goal is to examine at least five percent of positive samples for gene mutations in the future. "We want a better overview of the virus variants circulating in Germany," said the CDU politician.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Armin Laschet is to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the new CDU leader. The 59-year-old prevailed in a runoff against former parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz at the party's digital convention on Saturday.

In a first reaction, Armin Laschet said, "First of all, I thank you for the great trust." He said he was aware of his responsibility. He wants to ensure that the CDU/CSU provides the next chancellor that will succeed Angela Merkel.

German Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) banned the neo-Nazi association "Sturmbrigade 44", which also calls itself "Wolfsbrigade 44", on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, the police searched objects of 13 club members in Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Herbert Reul (CDU), Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, the police seized cell phones and drugs, among other things, during the searches.

In the municipality of Ahnatal in Hesse, the mayoral election has been decided by chance. The candidates from the social democratic party SPD and Christian democratic union CDU had received the exact same number of votes. In this case, Hesse's municipal regulations provide for a decision by lot.

The candidate of the SPD, Stephan Hänes, has subsequently been drawn and won.

After warnings from the SPD, the leader of the German Green party, Robert Habeck, also warned the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt to not collaborate with the right-wing AfD in the ongoing discussion about the planned raise of the broadcast license fee.

The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt is strictly against the raise and could prevent it if they joined forces with the AfD in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt because every federal state has to approve the raise.

German politician Friedrich Merz says he now "regrets" comments made when asked whether he would have reservations if an LGBT+ chancellor were to lead Germany.

During a video interview for the Bild newspaper, Merz replied to the question with: "No. Concerning the question of sexual orientation, as long as it is within the law and does not affect children — which at this point, for me, would be an absolute limit — it is not an issue for public discussion."

Merz is the leading candidate for the position of chair of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU). Whoever is selected for the role would likely become the party's candidate to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor.

Merz' answer sparked an outcry from German politicians, especially as one of his rivals for the position of CDU chair, Health Minister Jens Spahn, is openly gay.

Another gay politician, deputy chair of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Kevin Kühnert tweeted: "This is how someone works who cannot hide the fact that he cannot deal with the normalization of homosexuality."

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) invoked its unity and willingness to reform. "In the end, the United Nations can only be as good as its members are united," Merkel said in a video message on Monday evening in New York for the UN anniversary ceremony.

She stated that the UN must continue to develop in order to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.

The criminologist Tobias Singelnstein criticizes the collection of the "family tree" among the identified perpetrators of the riots in Stuttgart. In juvenile criminal law - which will probably be used these cases - due to the educational concept, it is necessary to find out about family backgrounds, but the immigration background demonstrably does not say anything about the crime.

He is facing headwind from CDU politicians who justify this investigative approach by the fact that it could initiate preventive measures.

The German chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative party CDU has stated that the limits of "fact-denying populism" by world leaders have been exposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Merkel added that these leaders promote "lies and disinformation" and said that "We are seeing at the moment that the pandemic can't be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it be with hatred and agitation".