Bavaria’s conservative state premier, Markus Söder, endorsed centre-right Christian Democrat (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz on Tuesday as the opposition chancellor candidate for next year’s nationwide parliamentary elections. Söder, the chairman of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had been seen as the leading potential rival to Merz for the conservative bloc’s top candidacy. But in a joint press conference with Merz on Tuesday in Berlin, Söder said Merz would be the CDU/CSU’s leader as the party seeks to knock off Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular centre-left co…