The party's elder statesman, Kurt Biedenkopf , is currently prime minister of Saxony. He is popular in east and west and is not tainted by Helmut Kohl's political machine. But at 69 he is seen as too old to be anything other than a caretaker leader. He has praised Mr Ruehe's role in avoiding a meltdown at the Schleswig-Holstein poll. Juergen Ruettgers , the boss of the North Rhine Westfalia party, has been mooted but he has been damaged by his friendship with the former Chancellor and rumours of a plot to install him as party leader in place of Wolfgang Schaeuble.
German system is under threat.
If the CDU divides, the twin party system itself would fall apart. That could guarantee, at best, prolong Social Democrat rule. At worst it could bring a return of the instability of the Weimar Republic of the pre-war years. Meanwhile, in the east the former Communist PDS have put the Social Democrats under pressure and beaten them into third place in some states. If the meltdown in confidence in the political system infects the Governing Social Democrats too, and there is evidence that it could, Germany is heading for a turbulent period of politics.