CSU boss Markus Söder has ruled out renewed efforts for the Union’s chancellor candidacy. “I dedicate my entire energy exclusively to Bavaria – this applies not only to the time up to the state elections, but also afterwards,” said Söder of the “Passauer Neue Presse” on Tuesday. “The other is over.”

Last year, Söder had a bitter argument with the then CDU leader Armin Laschet about the Union’s chancellor candidacy.

When Laschet was determined as the candidate for chancellor, Söder repeatedly expressed himself in a way that was understood as cross-shots against Laschet, who then failed in the federal elections in September.

Söder now commented in the newspaper on the question of whether a chancellor candidacy would be an option if he delivered a decent election result in the upcoming Bavarian state elections in 2023. “A state election is not a show for the federal election – it’s all about Bavaria,” he said.