He looks like good man and that, in politics, is synonymous with weakness. Armin Laschet has loaded with that sambenito on the backs since last year he assumed the presidency of the Christianodemocratic Union (CDU) and raised months later with the candidacy of the Foreign Ministry of the Conservative Block afterwards. In both cases he rivaled sharks, but blessed the poor in spirit because of them is the kingdom of heaven. Laschet, practicing Catholic, addicted to work, moderate and without a leader charism, ascended in the career of him based on perseverance.
You are not known political intrigues or collections for loyalties although it was always close to the chancellor. The sin of him have been inopportune laughter with members of the head of the Head of State, Frank Walter Steinmeir, as long as he made a statement of weighing and solidarity with the victims of recent floods in western Germany. Laschet was at that time about 20 meters behind him and could not hear the condolences of him. But something Jocoso had to comment with his press spokesman Christian Wiermer, the Rhein-Erft District Ruber, Frank Rock, and the Regional Deputy Gregor Golland, to launch a laugh, which, bad luck, was recorded by television cameras. You're welcome at Laschet to ask a thousand times apologies. "Cheerful in the middle of pain", "the frivolous laughter of the nation" has been any of the headlines. The suitability of him as a leader was doubly questioned. The victory forecasts of him entered a Barrena.
Laschet has endured the shower with dignity, ignoring the jokes and the accusations that were always against him, always at the confrontation and polarization as a tool to win elections. "Some say that you have to be able to polarize. And I say no. Polarizar is easy, it can do any. The recipe is known: take the poison and spread it digitally everywhere," he says.
Although their conciliatory qualities often protruded, their image of responsible "undecided", which sometimes acts "without reflecting", is invoiced. In the first wave of the pandemic, Laschet rejected the strict measures at first, but then changed his mind and imposed the first local confinement of the country, after a large focus of contagion in a slaughterhouse.
In the international arena it maintains the nucleus of the postulates of the Angela Merkel Chancellor, although with the most European accent. In a recent interview with 'Internationale Politik Quarterly' she was in favor of "more Europe", especially in foreign policy and safety, although without never damaging the transatlantic ties. In the economic sphere, it considers that the debt issuance of the European Commission by the crisis of the Coronavirus is a specific action and that the Maastricht criteria do not need to be reformed because they include adequate flexibility for emergency moments.
Centrista and consensus articulator, Laschet leads in politics from 27 years, when he entered as a councilman at the Aquisgrán City Council, his hometown. In 1994 he jumped from the municipal policy to the Federal and five years later to the European Parliament. In 2005, and already as a convinced Europeanist, he returned to North Rhine-Westphalia to assume the portfolio of generations, family, woman and integration, functions he performed with so hard he received the nickname of "Armin Turco". "We do not have to see the ethnic, religious and cultural diversity of our country as a threat, but as an opportunity and a challenge," said Laschet in 2009. Almost a decade after and several years in the opposition, Laschet conquered the government in 2017 Renano in coalition with the Liberals of the FDP, charge that occupies since then.
But before, in 2015, Laschet had to renounce the Honorary Professor's position from the Technical University of Aachen, which he had exercised for 16 years. He was caught in a lie. So that nobody knew that he had lost the exams of him, he put a freehand note. The problem is that he even described those who did not show up.
Laschet, 60, was born in a middle-class, Catholic, Roman and apostolic family. His father Heinrich "Heinz" was a mining foreman and his mother, Marcella, housewife. Both were originating in Belgium. Also the family of his wife, Susana, whom he met in the church chorus, comes from Belgium, so both dominate French and feel Europe in their veins. The couple has three children, one of which, Johannes, is known in the world of fashion and social networks as a blogger.
Laschet studied law but did not complete the state examinations, hence he could never exercise as a lawyer. The first strikes of him in the work world were as a journalist, first on Radio 95.5 Charivari, then in the radiotelevision of Bavaria and, finally, as a chief editor of the religious newspaper of the Diocese of Aachen. The vocation of him, however, was always politics and it has been fully dedicated since 2001, when he was elected president of the local group of the CDU in Aachen.
On February 25, 2020, he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the CDU, who won in second round against Friedrich Merz's favorite, representative of the most conservative wing and with more roots in the economic sectors. In April, he appealed as a leader of the majority group of the conservative block to the candidacy of the Foreign Ministry and still laying the wind of the surveys against, was imposed on Bavarian Markus Söder.
Laschet is a devout Catholic. He was baptized in the parish of San Miguel de Aachen, of which he is a member since 1961 and was a Maguillo until 1977. "Christian values play an important role in my life to this day, even if sometimes I fight with the Catholic Church . The essence of the brand of the CDU is not the conservative image, but the Christian image of man, who is above all, "he explains. It is because of that humanist conception of life so Laschet supported unreservedly at Chancellor Merkel in her decision to accommodate hundreds of thousands of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan in 2015.
Date Of Update: 25 September 2021, 19:28
