 After serving one term he was elected to the Bundestag, where he established himself as the leading financial policy expert in the CDU.He was elected chairman of the CDU/CSU group in the same year as Angela Merkel was elected chairwoman of the CDU, and at the time they were rivals for the leadership of the party.In 2002, he stepped down as leader of the opposition in favour of Merkel and gradually withdrew from politics, focusing on his legal career and leaving parliament entirely in 2009.