(de-news.net) – Friedrich Merz has secured a decisive mandate at the federal party convention of the Christian Democratic Union in Stuttgart, thereby reaffirming his leadership of the party. According to the official figures released by the convention presidium, he obtained 91.2 percent of the vote on Friday evening, marking a measurable increase from the 89.8 percent recorded at his previous election in 2024. Of the 977 delegates who cast ballots, 878 supported his reelection, while 85 voted against and 14 abstained. The voting process, originally intended to be conducted through a digital system, had to be carried out using paper ballots because of technical complications, a procedural adjustment that did not alter the substance of the result but underscored organizational contingencies.

In his address to the delegates, the Chancellor situated his bid for continued leadership within the broader context of mounting reform pressures confronting Germany. He called upon the governing coalition to adopt a more constructive and coordinated mode of cooperation, arguing that established patterns of interaction—whereby one coalition partner routinely advanced proposals only to see them reflexively dismissed by the other—had constrained effective governance. While emphasizing that the government had already enacted significant decisions and initiated substantive reforms, he maintained that the pace and scope of progress would need to intensify over the coming year. At the same time, Merz conceded that, following the transition in administration, insufficient attention had been devoted to communicating the structural nature of the reform agenda and the reality that such transformations could not be accomplished instantaneously. Notwithstanding these communication shortcomings, he reaffirmed his adherence to ambitious policy objectives and framed them as both necessary and attainable within a disciplined governing framework.

Prior to the vote, Merz had also reiterated his unequivocal rejection of cooperation with the Alternative für Deutschland, underscoring that the CDU would seek political majorities exclusively within the democratic center. In this context, he leveled accusations against the AfD related to allegations concerning the employment of relatives, asserting that such practices reflected patterns of nepotism, internal discord, and the misuse of public office and financial resources. By contrasting his party’s centrist orientation with what he characterized as organizational disorder and self-serving conduct within the AfD, Merz reinforced a strategic boundary designed to delineate the CDU’s governing claim from that of its right-wing competitor.