April 21, 2021: -On Tuesday morning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative alliance selected a candidate to represent the center-right bloc in the country’s national election this year, after much uncertainty and delay.

Till now, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the Christian Social Union (CSU), were not able to agree on who should lead the conservatives into the election on September 26.

At a meeting of the CDU’s board Monday night, however, most senior party members voted to nominate Armin Laschet, the leader of the CDU and state-premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, as the candidate for chancellor for this year’s election.

The CDU tweeted that there had been “a long and intense debate among the members from the 17 regional associations, district associations, and associations about people, election prospects and the mood at the party base” before the votes came for Laschet.

On Tuesday, Soeder, the head of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, said that he accepted the decision and would support Laschet, wishing him “great success for the difficult challenge ahead,” Reuters reported.

Thus far, the inability of the alliance to present a candidate had been the source of frustration for CDU-CSU officials. It had not been lost on opposition politicians who could become influential in forming a new government in September.

On Monday, the Green Party confirmed that Annalena Baerbock would be its next German chancellor. Jürgen Trittin, the member of the Bundestag and former leader of Germany’s Green Party, told CNBC that the party now had an outside chance that it could even lead Germany’s government come September.2

“I’ve never seen, in my political life, such a crisis within the conservative Christian Democratic party,” Trittin said, arguing that the CDU-CSU’s indecision over which candidate will lead the bloc into the election had been damaging to the alliance.

“Even if they decide now, the other side of the party is so hurt and damaged they will have a real problem in the election campaign and as a potential coalition partner for whomever.” The Green Party is gaining confidence and even daring to dream it could overtake the CDU/CSU when it comes to the September vote.