Merkel party faithful to pick her successor
German politics on a knife edge as CDU pair slug it out for chance to take centre-stage in Europe
The race to succeed Angela Merkel as the leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats is on a knife edge as party delegates gather in Hamburg today to vote. Three candidates are vying for the leadership that will make them odds-on favourite to be Germany’s next chancellor.
THE race to succeed Angela Merkel as the leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) was on a knife edge last night, as the final stages of the leadership contest re-awakened longstanding political divisions among the party’s old guard.
Some 1,001 party delegates will gather in Hamburg today for a series of votes to elect a new party leader who will instantly become odds-on favourite to be Germany’s next chancellor and leader of Europe’s most powerful economy when Mrs Merkel retires.
The contest, triggered after Mrs Merkel announced she would not stand for re-election after a series of poor election results since the 2015 migrant crisis, has exposed ideological and personal splits in a party that has ruled Germany for 49 of the past 69 years.
Three candidates are vying for the leadership, wooing delegates and party faithful with eight rounds of hustings staged across Germany.
Immigration has been a key issue, as the party struggles to come to grips with the political fallout of a migrant crisis that has fractured Germany’s coalition politics, shrunk the CDU’S vote and facilitated the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party.
Friedrich Merz, a millionaire corporate lawyer, has taken the hardest line on the issue, criticising the approach of Mrs Merkel, a long-standing political rival who forced him out as the CDU’S parliamentary leader in 2002.
Mr Merz warned against the risk of open borders and the “unregulated influx” of migrants into the country, even at one point questioning the constitutional right to asylum – an article of faith in post-war Germany after the horrors of the Nazi era.
The 63-year-old financier swiftly retracted the idea after being condemned by the two other candidates, Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer, the party’s 56-year-old general secretary, and Jens Spahn, the 38-year-old health minister.
However, he has maintained a tough stance, implicitly blaming Mrs Merkel’s tack to the ideological centre for allowing the rise of the AFD and promising to restore the CDU’S clear-cut conserva-
‘I [believe] that Annegret has the best chance to unite the CDU’
tive identity. Mr Merz believes the strategy can return the CDU to a 40per cent share of the German vote, from its current low of just 27per cent.
By contrast, Ms Kramp-karrenbauer – a social conservative and Merkel protégé – espouses a more middle-ground course, building on the legacy of Mrs Merkel’s 18 years at the helm, 13 of them as German chancellor.
As a long-standing regional prime minister, she has trumpeted her commitment to the party, telling one husting of her “profound knowledge” of the CDU which came from bearing “responsibility for it for many years”. The implicit dig was at Mr Merz, who disappeared from front-line politics after 2002 and spent a decade earning millions in the corporate sector. The two leading candidates – the polls suggest Mr Spahn has faded to a distant third place – are backed by opposing wings of the CDU, with Wolfgang Schäuble, the former German finance minister, who was also edged aside by Mrs Merkel, endorsing Mr Merz.
Mrs Merkel has kept her counsel, choosing not to endorse Ms Krampkarrenbauer publicly, but Mr Schäuble’s endorsement of Mr Merz provoked a reaction from a leading Merkel loyalist, Peter Altmaier, the economy minister. “Since Wolfgang Schäuble has now opened the floodgates, I can say that I am convinced that Annegret Krampkarrenbauer has the best chance to unite the CDU and win elections,” Mr Altmaier told his local newspaper. While polls show the party rank-andfile favour Ms Kramp-karrenbauer, it is far from clear that this advantage will be reflected in the decision of the delegates with whom Mr Merz’s conservative credentials and oratorical skills have strong appeal.
Mr Merz is seen to have some “home advantage”, since nearly a third of the delegates come from his home state of North Rhine-westphalia.
Set against this, Ms Kramp-karrenbauer’s grassroots popularity and middle-of-the-road credentials are seen as important for forming the multi-party coalitions that look set to become a permanent feature of Germany’s fractured politics.