This post was originally published on South China Morning Post.
Merkel’s ally Armin Laschet wins race to lead her party, kicking off German election campaign
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party on Saturday picked her ally Armin Laschet as its next leader, in a vote that kicks off the race for Germany’s top job as a deadly pandemic roils Europe’s biggest economy.In the close race, Laschet, the state premier of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, triumphed over old Merkel nemesis Friedrich Merz, after a first round that saw Merz leading by just five votes.A third hopeful, foreign affairs expert Norbert Roettgen, was…