Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 7, 2021
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Merkel heir indicates he will leave party after German election failure
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Governor Armin Laschet, top candidate for the upcoming election, wave to supporters at the final election campaign event of the Christian Democratic Party, CDU, ahead of the German general election in Aachen, Germany, on September 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
The head of the Christian Democrats, North Rhine-Westphalia state governor Armin Laschet, says that he will propose calling a party conference in the coming weeks to determine its future leadership.
Laschet, who was the Union bloc’s candidate for chancellor, doesn’t say whether he will run to keep his party leadership post but speaks of the need to have “new personalities to make a fresh start.”
His campaign to succeed former CDU head Angela Merkel as chancellor failed to win over voters, and the bloc took 24.1 percent of the vote on September 26, its worst-ever result, coming in second behind the Social Democrats.
The 60-year-old Laschet has already said that he will not continue as governor of North Rhine-Westphalia.
