Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer will wait until after the state elections in the fall to decide on his candidacy for chancellor

Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer does not want the Union's candidacy for chancellor to be decided until the fall after the state elections. "We have an agreement that it will be clarified in the fall, and the fall begins sometime at the end of September," said the CDU politician in an interview with WDR. Kretschmer is also the deputy federal leader of his party. State elections are due to be held in Saxony and Thuringia on September 1, followed by Brandenburg on September 22.

In December, Kretschmer had said that he thought the K question had already been decided. "Friedrich Merz is chairman of the CDU and the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag - and is very much supported by Markus Söder, Alexander Dobrindt and myself in his candidacy," he said. Even then, however, he pointed out that the official decision would not be made until the fall.