German conservatism is imploding. The federal election on 26 September ended with a crushing defeat of the ruling CDU/CSU, which received a record low of 24.1 per cent of the vote. And while coalition negotiations are still underway, the result already points to a profound crisis for Germany’s conservatives.
Part of the problem was the CDU/CSU candidate, Armin Laschet, minister-president of Germany’s largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, was just not a convincing successor to Angela Merkel as chancellor. He was rightly criticised as lacking both in personality and in programme. His campaign performance on key issues, from Covid to climate change, was widely seen as lacklustre.
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