Does Angela Merkel also hand over the chancellorship to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer after the CDU chairmanship? After the conservative "value union" the Chancellor urges to resign soon, the CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has now rejected speculation in the debate.
"I see at the moment neither in the CDU nor in the SPD relevant voices, which deal with this issue seriously," said the CDU boss at Reuters TV. "And that's right, because we have a Chancellor, and we want - and I want to be at the top - that Angela Merkel remains Chancellor." Merkel herself had said that she would be available as Chancellor by the end of the 2021 legislature.
The conservative "value union" had openly pleaded for a speedy change in the Chancellery. Its chairman Alexander Mitsch invited Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in the "Passauer Neue Presse" to resign her office soon to the CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. "It would be best for the Union, if Mrs. Merkel organized her office and as soon as possible to AKK," said Mitsch.
Ziemiak accuses value union of deliberately harming the Union
In SPIEGEL, leading Social Democrats had refused to accept a possible change. Ex-SPD party leader Sigmar Gabriel, however, called such a flying change in the Chancellery for tactically unavoidable. "Personally, I do not think that Angela Merkel is so stupid as to let Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer run like a poodle for two and a half years," said Gabriel of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
Also CDU Secretary General Paul Ziemiak had previously rejected the demands of the value union and speculation in the SPD on a withdrawal of Merkel and change to Kramp-Karrenbauer. "There is no statement from relevant politicians who now demand a change in any form at the top of the government," said Ziemiak after a Bureau meeting in Berlin.
Most people and also CDU members wanted to work in the field and no new personnel debates. He accused the value union to deliberately want to harm this repeated demand of the CDU.