BERLIN – The new leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party says he's confident of securing his party's support to become the center-right candidate for Germany's next leader, after he and a rival both declared their ambitions.
The Union bloc aims to decide quickly on its candidate after months of shadow-boxing between Armin Laschet, the head of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, and Markus Soeder, who leads its smaller Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union.
Laschet and Soeder — the governors of Germany's two most populous states, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria respectively — both officially declared on Sunday that they're prepared to run, but insisted that they will quickly find a harmonious solution.