Söder backs Aigner for German presidency and urges centre to fight extremists

CSU leader Markus Söder used a combative party conference speech to endorse Bavaria's parliament speaker Ilse Aigner as the next German federal president, saying her election would be a wonderful thing. Aigner sat in the front row during the speech, stood up, and waved to delegates. Söder said he would repeat the endorsement on Saturday when Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends the conference.

The CDU leadership's position on Aigner remains unclear, although party circles said shortly before the conference that the CDU had not abandoned its claim to nominate a candidate from its own ranks. Merz has not yet publicly commented on the question.

“It is now about the existence of the people's party.”

In a speech lasting about 70 minutes, Söder urged his party and all centre parties to wage a joint fight against extremists from the left and right. He specifically called on the Union to do everything possible to overtake the AfD in polls and become number one in Germany again. He also warned the black-red coalition to stick together, not merely out of fear of new elections.

Söder said Germany was in the middle of a storm, describing eastern state elections as a disaster and warning of a blue wave and a red front. He stressed that the issue now concerned the existence of the people's party.

Recent polls showed the CSU at 37 and 36 percent, matching or nearly matching its 2023 state election result. Söder told delegates the CSU could detach itself from the Union's threatening downward trend and might be the strongest part of the Union. He warned the party must not remain in a waking coma.

The future of Ilse Aigner as a presidential candidate has been intensively discussed since Söder named her his favourite months ago. The CSU general secretary recently told the CDU it no longer had the status of a major people's party, a claim Merz is likely to contest.