‘Mini Merkel’ choice sparks resignations

LOCAL members of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats have quit in protest at Angela Merkel’s chosen successor winning the race to lead the party.

Just a day after the CDU appeared to end weeks of infighting by voting in Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as “mini Merkel”, delegates at the party’s congress told The Sunday Telegraph of a wave of resignations among rank and file members.

Victory for Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer is seen by many as a failure of the party to learn from the mistakes of Mrs Merkel, and a missed opportunity to regain ground on the Right on key issues such as immigration.

Party delegates from several regions confirmed that members left the CDU after Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer defeated pro-business figure Friedrich Merz by a mere 35 of the 999 delegate votes on Friday. One prominent party figure confirmed that “very many” of the party rank and file had quit.

The contest, which sets the stage for the CDU to maintain its moderate edge after Mrs Merkel steps down in 2021, laid bare divisions that have been simmering inside the CDU.

Many delegates were left deflated by what they see as a vote for the continuation of policies that have lost the party millions of voters to the populist Alternative for Germany and the Greens.

“The CDU had a chance to change its course and it didn’t take it,” Urban Lanig, a delegate from the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, said yesterday. Seven people have left his local party chapter in the past 24 hours.