Though the convention is not obliged to elect the proposed candidates, the membership vote is considered politically binding.

[3] Three candidates ran, being former Leader of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag Friedrich Merz, former Minister for the Environment Norbert Röttgen and Head of the Chancellery Helge Braun.

Röttgen, who was fired as Minister by Merkel in 2012, did not have the establishment backing, but ran on a liberal platform and appealing to young voters via social media.

Party members overwhelmingly choose conservative outsider Friedrich Merz in December 2021 with 62.1%, avoiding a runoff election, after he had failed in the previous two leadership elections, to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and Laschet in January 2021.

This was seen as a rebuttal to the party establishment, that had backed Kramp-Karrenbauer and Laschet, both seen as being more moderate, aligned in both policy positions and leadership style to Angela Merkel.