3 contenders in race to take over from Merkel
THREE high-profile contenders are vying to lead Angela Merkel’s party as the longtime German chancellor makes way after 18 years for a successor who could shape the European Union’s most populous country for the next generation.
The center-right Christian Democratic Union will today elect a new chairman or chairwoman, who will be the favorite to run for chancellor in Germany’s next election.
Merkel has been CDU leader since 2000 and chancellor since 2005. She moved her party to the center, dropping military conscription, accelerating Germany’s exit from nuclear energy, introducing benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children, and allowing the introduction of gay marriage.
Most controversially, she allowed large numbers of asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015.
Merkel’s popularity lifted her center-right bloc for years, peaking in a 2013 election in which it won 41.5 percent of the vote.
But in October, after a troubled start to her fourth-term government and two dismal state election performances, the 64-year-old announced she would step down as CDU leader.
Her potential successors need to lift a party polling under 30 percent. They could take the CDU, which together with the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union has been post-war Germany’s most consistently successful political force, in different directions. The choice will be made by 1,001 delegates at a party congress in Hamburg.
The CDU’s general secretary since February, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, often called AKK, is a Merkel ally. She touts her own lengthy experience in regional government, which saw her become the first woman state interior minister, and serve as governor of western Saarland state.
Kramp-Karrenbauer knows how to win elections, defying expectations to win re-election in Saarland by a wide margin last year.
AKK has consistently shown more willingness than the chancellor to cater to conservative rhetoric and more vocally opposed gay marriage. Recently, she has sought to put careful distance between herself and Merkel without disavowing her, saying she has had “very lively discussions” with the chancellor on various subjects.
Kramp-Karrenbauer has talked tough on immigration issues, proposing a lifelong entry ban to Europe for asylum-seekers convicted of serious crimes. But she has warned that endlessly reheating arguments about the 2015 migrant influx is a turnoff for voters.
One-time rival
A one-time Merkel rival, Friedrich Merz, 63, is seeking a spectacular comeback after more than a decade away from frontline politics. He stands for a more conservative and business-friendly approach. Merz led the center-right group in parliament from 2000 until 2002, when Merkel pushed him out of that job. He left parliament in 2009, and in recent years practiced as a lawyer and headed the supervisory board of the German branch of investment manager BlackRock. A snappy speaker, Merz lacks government experience but is well-connected in the party.
In the past, he advocated radical tax reform and argued that foreigners should learn German “Leitkultur,” which could be roughly translated as “majority culture.”
He has criticized the “unregulated influx” of migrants and charged that the CDU accepted the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which entered the national parliament last year, “with a shrug of the shoulders.”
He appeared briefly to question the right to asylum enshrined in the German constitution, but quickly walked that back. He has advocated encouraging greater use of private pension plans using shares.
A Merkel critic, Jens Spahn, 38, became health minister in March as Merkel acknowledged pressure for renewal. He has support on the party’s right — but that appears to have been largely swallowed by Merz’s reemergence, leaving him as the outsider.
Spahn has made migration a focus, calling it the “elephant in the room.” He has said security is a key issue, and argued that “not everything is good again” even though the flow of migrants has slowed.
Spahn, who is openly gay, has said his party doesn’t need to “shift to the right,” but it does need to start “a real change of generations.” He looks highly unlikely to succeed this time, but this contest could position him well for the CDU’s next leadership change.