[anfelor]

The CDU had a rough period where they were accused of mismanaging several important parts of the covid strategy (including giving contracts for pursuing masks to their cronies) and they couldn't figure out who should become their candidate (they don't have primary elections and Laschet who was prefered by the establishment was vastly less popular overall than Söder. Laschet is now their candidate).

So the Greens had a good start but their candidate has no experience in government and has recently been painted as incompetent. She inflated some parts of her CV and apparently didn't cite all the sources she used for her book (even though she sometimes copied paragraphs almost verbatim). Nothing too bad, but it still doesn't look good.

[majewsky]

> Laschet who was prefered by the establishment was vastly less popular overall than Söder. Laschet is now their candidate

I too was quite baffled when they went with Laschet. I've since heard the theory that the CDU leadership was worried that Söder would transform the Union party into an ego show like Christian Kurz did with the Austrian conservatives, or like Christian Lindner did with the German liberals. If they genuinely believe that threat to be worth taking serious, I can see why they would prefer Laschet. A one-man party is fine as long as the leader is going strong, but falls apart quickly when they disappear.