PremiumGermany's conservatives will hold crunch talks later Monday on a bitter battle to succeed Angela Merkel at upcoming elections, with the leader of the chancellor's party warning against a polarising campaign as experienced by the United States.
"I have called the party board to discussions at 6pm (1600 GMT) today... and will make a proposal as to how we can solve this issue quickly," said Armin Laschet, the embattled leader of Merkel's CDU party.
Laschet, who is state premier of Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, has been locked in a power struggle against his Bavarian challenger Markus Soeder, leader of the CSU party, over who will lead the conservatives into general elections on September 26.
Divisions in the conservative camp were further underlined on Monday as the Greens -- who are polling second behind the CDU-CSU -- announced co-chair Annalena Baerbock as their candidate at a slick press event with no signs of strife within the centre-left party.
Congratulating Baerbock on the nomination, Laschet promised a "fair election campaign" and urged parties to be "respectful" of each other in a veiled warning at Soeder.
"We know from the USA what it means to have polarised election campaigns, and we know how long it took and is taking a new president to once again reconcile the country," he said, in an apparent reference to President Joe Biden.
"We should spare ourselves that in Germany," he added.
Soeder, who declared his bid for the job a week ago, had then said he would step aside "without resentment" if larger party CDU was to decide for his rival Laschet.
After the CDU's leadership came out a day later in support for Laschet, Soeder refused to back down.
Instead, the 54-year-old on Monday said "broad backing means when the board, parliamentary group and rank and file all want it".
A recent poll by public broadcaster ARD showed 44 percent of Germans in favour of Soeder as most qualified as the CDU-CSU's chancellor candidate. Laschet only had 15 percent of support.
Overnight talks in Berlin between the two men on Sunday night produced no result, fuelling speculation that the candidacy issue may be settled by a vote amongst CDU and CSU parliamentarians on Tuesday.
Laschet said he had also invited Soeder to Monday's talks.
"We need to talk to each other a lot in these days. The aim is that the CDU-CSU wins the elections, and that can only happen if we are together," he said.
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