Former Chancellor Angela Merkel missed the announcement of Friedrich Merz's re-election as CDU leader at the party congress in Stuttgart on [Date of Congress]. Merkel departed shortly after 6:00 PM, aiming to catch the last direct train to Berlin, and congratulated Merz via SMS. The delay in the election results, which were announced over three hours later than initially scheduled at 6:40 PM, was attributed to a delayed start of the Chancellor's speech, its extended duration, and a failure in the electronic voting system requiring paper ballots. This marks the second time Merkel has missed a significant election result announcement for Merz, having previously left during his unsuccessful bid for Chancellor in the Bundestag.