This weekend’s Christian-Democrat conference elected Armin Laschet as new party leader, narrowly defeating his Trump-like rival. With Chancellor Angela Merkel set to step down this fall, the party is seeking a new centrist bloc with the Greens — but still faces a hard-right upsurge within its own ranks.

At this weekend’s Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) conference, Armin Laschet narrowly won the race to become the center-right party’s new leader. The victory for Laschet, widely regarded as a more liberal figure than his “hardline conservative” rival Friedrich Merz, paves the way for the CDU to form a coalition government with the Greens after September’s federal elections. However, the structural problems facing the CDU are here to stay.

In many ways, the CDU has gotten itself out of a bind. With the election of Laschet as party leader, the process of establishing a successor to Angela Merkel went much more smoothly than had appeared likely in recent days. Laschet directly succeeds Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who served as CDU leader for just two years before losing the support of the party and of her predecessor Merkel, who remains both Chancellor and a figure of considerable influence within the party.