Merkel taps heir apparent for top party role

berlin — Angela Merkel on Monday tapped the popular female premier of Germany’s tiny Saarland state to take over as secretary general of her conservative party, fuelling speculation the veteran chancellor is lining up her successor.

At a joint Berlin Press conference, Merkel said she was “moved” that close confidante Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 55, would take the reins from her right-hand man Peter Tauber at “a difficult time” for their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

The surprise reshuffle comes after Tauber said at the weekend he was stepping down for health reasons, and with Merkel struggling to form a new government after a tricky general election last September.

The chancellor praised Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK, as someone “who has experience and knows her own mind, whose work I have valued for years”. Both women

Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer are sending the first clear signal in the debate about Merkel’s succession in four years’ time at the latest

Daily the were coy, however, about whether the move meant Merkel had effectively anointed AKK as her heir apparent.

“I would not give myself that label,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters.

Merkel also refused to make predictions for the future, saying only she wanted to see the state premier “fully unfold her skills and capabilities in the new role”.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, dubbed the “Merkel of Saarland” and “miniMerkel” by German media, is expected to be formally appointed at a CDU congress on February 26. Her star been on the rise since her thumping re-election last year in a closely-watched regional vote. She also played a key role in Merkel’s tough coalition negotiations with the centre-left Social Democrats.

“Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer are sending the first clear signal in the debate about Merkel’s succession in four years’ time at the latest,” the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote.

The changeover comes as Merkel, in power for over 12 years, is under fire within her party over concessions made to seal another loveless “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats (SPD) — and the loss of the powerful finance ministry portfolio a particularly bitter blow.

By appointing the up-and-coming AKK to a top CDU role, Merkel is in part responding to critics who have been calling for fresh faces to reinvigorate the party after its disappointing showing in September’s general election. —