Westphalia, Kauder will face a challenge of his own maintaining party discipline when the CDU candidate Juergen Ruettgers joins other ambitious regional barons who often show little compunction in breaking ranks to pursue agendas of their own. Like other CDU leaders, he has refused to speculate on what victory would bring for his party, after 39 years of uninterrupted SPD government in the state. "I'll talk about election results when they're in," he says. He also refused to speculate on what the election might mean for CDU leader Angela Merkel, who is seen as the most likely challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder but who has yet to be formally anointed and who still faces possible rivals. "The question will be decided during the course of the year and I can't say anything about it beforehand," he said. "But it's true that Angela Merkel is the successful head of the CDU and the joint parliamentary party."
