Armin Laschet, the CDU's candidate for chancellor in Germany's September election, right, and outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel arrive for an event in Berlin. Angela Merkel's party kicked off its election campaign in the hopes of continuing to lead the country even as the chancellor steps down. Armin Laschet, the state governor who now leads Merkel's centre-right party, said he would "fight with everything" he can to win the September 26 election. Merkel has been in office for 16 years and announced in 2018 that she wouldn't seek a fifth term as chancellor.

But poll numbers for the CDU have decreased in recent weeks, with the party polling just a few points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats and the environmentalist Green Party. The CDU took 32.9% of the vote in the last election, in 2017 and in its best result under Merkel, the bloc won 41.5% in 2013. Meanwhile, Laschet's Social Democratic rival Olaf Scholz — the vice chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government — has gained ground.

At a rally in Berlin, Laschet criticised his left-leaning rivals stating that they would increase taxes and risk strangling the economy as it recovers from the pandemic.  “We will fight — I will fight with everything that I can — so that this country is not taken over by ideologues, so that we have the opportunity to implement our ideas for this modern Germany," Laschet said. “That is what we are fighting for. We will give everything we can, we will make the differences with the others clear. Who governs is fundamental. We want to govern."

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