Two days following the significant defeat of the CDU in the state elections, former minister-president Sven Schulze was elected the new party chief in Saxony-Anhalt. According to consistent media reports, the vote on Tuesday was extremely close, passing by a margin of eight to seven votes. His opponent was Guido Heuer, the previous head of the faction.
Schulze had previously informed the public on Monday, following a meeting of the state board, that he would not stand for re-election as party chairman at the end-of-year executive board meeting. Nevertheless, he continues to hold the position of head of the CDU state branch until then.
The context for this leadership change is the poor performance in the recent election. The CDU garnered only 17.2% of the vote on Sunday, a sharp drop from the 37.1% it achieved in 2021. The AfD emerged as the strongest political force, securing 43.8% of the votes.
