Favourite to replace Merkel steps down in conservative party blow
● Announcement reflects growing rift within ruling party over rise of far-right
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s designated successor has unexpectedly resigned, plunging her conservative party into deeper crisis as it struggles to agree on its future political direction after losing votes to the far-right.
Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer told leading members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday that she won’t be seeking the chancellorship in next year’s election, upending Ms Merkel’s plans to hand her the reins after more than 15 years in power.
Ms Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin that Germany’s long-time leader stood by her decision not to run for a fifth term in 2021, despite the latest development.
Ms Kramp-karrenbauer’s announcement reflects the growing split with the CDU exposed last week in its handling of the election of a governor in the state of Thuringia.
There regional party members voted with the far-right Alternative for Germany party to oust the left-wing incumbent, ignoring advice from Berlin leadership.
The move broke what is widely regarded as a taboo in post-war German politics around cooperating with extremist parties.
She told a news conference yesterday she would stay on as party leader until a leadership contest, expected in the summer, was held
It was unclear how the latest developments would affect Ms Merkel’s earlier plans for her succession.
A shift to the right in Ms Merkel’s centre-right party could trigger a break with her junior coalition partners in Germany’s federal government – the centre-left Social Democrats
– and increase the chances the country will hold the next general election early.
Among the names being bandied around as future party leaders were health minister Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz, who were beaten to the leadership by Ms Kramp-karrenbauer in December 2018.
Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-westphalia, which is Germany’s most populous state, is also being mentioned as a possible contender.
While Mr Spahn and Mr Laschet are considered centrists in the Merkel tradition, Mr Merz has tried to appeal to the conservative wing of the party that has flirted with the farright Alternative for Germany.
A lawyer and former party veteran, Mr Merz was sidelined by Ms Merkel before she became chancellor in 2005.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AFG) party welcomed Ms Kramp-karrenbauer’s resignation, as did Germany’s former domestic intelligence chief Hansgeorg Maassen, who has been a vocal figure on the right of Ms Merkel’s party since he was ousted in 2018.
Peter Altmaier, Germany’s economy minister and a close Merkel ally, said the CDU were in “an unusually serious situation”.
Existing polls have Ms Merkel’s conservative block holding steady at about 28 per cent support nationally, followed by the left-leaning Greens at about 22 per cent.
Yet the Social Democrats are struggling with only about 14 per cent support – about the same as the far-right AFG.
Last week, defying Ms Kramp-karrenbauer, some of the CDU’S local politicians in the eastern state of Thuringia voted with AFD to install liberal candidate Thomas Kemmerich as regional premier.
Mr Kemmerich later said he would resign and seek new elections in the state “to remove the stain of the Afd’s support for the office of the premiership”.
The AFD has grown in popularity in recent years, but has been condemned for its extreme views on immigration, freedom of speech and the press.