Defeat signals beginning of the end for Merkel, says opposition

GERMANS were speculating over the “beginning of the end of the Merkel era” last night after the chancellor suffered a shock defeat in a key vote of her party’s MPS.

For the first time since Angela Merkel took power almost 13 years ago, MPS from her Christian Democrat party (CDU) rejected her chosen candidate as their leader in parliament and voted instead for a challenger who had promised to be more independent.

The defeat was a blow to Mrs Merkel’s authority and left her facing the prospect of backbench rebellion as she tried to get her coalition’s legislative programme through parliament.

“This is an uprising against Merkel,” Thomas Oppermann, a senior MP from her coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD), wrote on Twitter.

“This is an hour of democracy, and it has its defeats,” Mrs Merkel told her MPS as she conceded her nominee had lost. “There is nothing to gloss over.”

It was the first time since 1973 that a challenger had even dared to stand against an incumbent chancellor’s candidate for the leadership of the CDU’S group in parliament.

Mrs Merkel nominated Volker Kauder, an arch-loyalist who has served her as parliamentary leader for 13 years for re-election, and her choice was endorsed by the rest of the party leadership. But Mr Kauder, 69, was defeated by Ralph Brinkhaus, a relative unknown, who said he was standing as the candidate of change to renew the party.

Mrs Merkel’s MPS sit in parliament with their more conservative Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the two parties elect a single backbench leader.

After a bruising summer of power struggles between Mrs Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the CSU leader, some MPS were expected to rebel in a protest vote against Mr Kauder.

But most forecasts predicted the challenger could hope for 30 per cent at most and until the votes were counted, defeat for Mrs Merkel’s candidate was considered unthinkable.

In the event, Mr Brinkhaus won by a knife edge, with 125 votes to Mr Kauder’s 112. Two MPS abstained.

While Mrs Merkel was not expected to be toppled in the immediate future, the defeat was a clear sign that her authority in her party was waning, and it was seized on by opposition parties.

“The defeat of Volker Kauder makes Angela Merkel’s loss of power in the CDU clear. The twilight of Merkel has finally begun,” Alice Weidel of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AFD) said. “This is the beginning of the end for Merkel. Her authority is massively damaged,” said Niema Movassat, of The Left party.