Laschet gains upper hand in fight to succeed Angela Merkel in Germany

Armin Laschet appeared to gain the upper hand in the battle to succeed Angela Merkel at the head of conservatives’ ticket this September after winning a clear majority in a vote among his party’s leadership.
 

Laschet, the head of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, won the backing of 31 out of 46 members of his party’s top committee -- or 67% -- in a ballot early Tuesday morning to determine who should lead the center-right bloc into the national election, according to a person familiar with the outcome. His rival for the top job, Bavarian State Premier Markus Soeder, won just