markus soder, for his part, has always stood aloof. the bavarians down in munich see things differently, they like to say, so he's always been his own man. he is pushing in from the other side. i think merkel is not involved in this race. she hasn't tipped it either way. as a result, she is just letting things play out. brent: the polls show that markus soder, the governor from bavaria, he is more popular among the german public then -- than armin laschet, yet the leadership of the cdu voted for laschet. why? simon: i think they wanted to give their backing to their man. armin laschet was just chosen as the chairman of the cdu party in january, so he's got a certain amount of impetus within the party. i think there's a feeling from the cdu that they are the larger of these two parties and they should have the priority that -- particularly in big decisions, like who is going to be the candidate to run for the nation's top political office. that's why they wanted to clear this question clear the air, as they probably saw it. this evening