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Anyone who had believed that there are no more directional decisions in German politics, that no sharp debates are possible anymore, was taught in Hamburg today a better: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer presented there as a woman who does not want to be misled from the competition on the right edge; who, much like Merkel, wants to oppose the crying necks with a policy of sober work.

Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, called for a "change of strategy" - one can also say right-wing - when he said that the CDU had to make an offer to conservative voters again. Nobody could say after the speeches of the two applicants that the CDU has no alternative. Now the party has decided: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was brought to Berlin by Merkel as secretary-general, is the new chairman of the CDU.

"That was big, big cinema"

After more than 18 years Angela Merkel has handed over the CDU party chairmanship to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Reactions to the historic party congress in Hamburg in quotes.

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Kramp-Karrenbauer did not want a break with Merkel, she acted according to the motto of Gerhard Schröder, who promised Helmut Kohl at the end of the era that he would not do everything differently but only to make a few things better. In a party that traditionally shuns risk and experiment, she was more likely to hit the nerve than her competitor. In addition, Merz, who has been praised so often as a brilliant speaker, just today showed a form weakness. In contrast to the passionate and masterfully built speech Kramp-Karrenbauer Merz seemed at least in the first minutes and nervously nervous, only at the end he got going. That was not enough to turn the hall over.

Two women who have known each other for a long time

This is good news for Angela Merkel. Everyone in the CDU knows that Kramp-Karrenbauer was their preferred candidate, and one could regard it as a subtle and yet clear reference to the congress, that Merkel prominently mentioned in her acclaimed farewell speech in the morning the brilliant victory Kramp-Karren Bauer in the state elections in Saarland : Look, that was the signal, here is someone who can win elections (and, unlike Merz, has already done so).

Merkel can now work with a woman she has known for a long time and who will not develop the ambition to drive her out of the Chancellery quickly. Hardly anyone in the CDU believed that a duo Merz / Merkel would have worked together peacefully, despite all public protestations. Kramp-Karrenbauer, on the other hand, finds it very convenient if she still has some time to prepare for the jump to the chancellery.

Stimmenfang Podcast # 77 - At last they are arguing - How the competition over the CDU presidency has freed the party

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In any case, she must first ensure that the party does not break; that's the real challenge. The race between her and Merz went extremely close, at the end she was with just 35 votes in front. The fact that in the party of Adenauer and Kohl, in which over 50 years only men were at the top, a woman follows a woman, shows how thoroughly Merkel has modernized the CDU. But just as in the candidacy of Merz the revenge was thought, just as burdened now on the choice Kramp-Karren Bauer's dynasty suspicion. In any case, Merkel has made considerable progress on her own path as chancellor.

Kramp-Karrenbauer will hold the CDU together only if it can show success, especially in the fight against the AfD. Merz has led his campaign with the not unfounded accusation that Merkel has accepted the rise of the right-wing populists as collateral damage to their politics of the middle. If Kramp-Karrenbauer fails in the task of taking away the AfD voter, the Union faces hard times, possibly even a split.

Video analysis: "The danger of a split in the party is real"

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MIRROR ONLINE

In some regions of East Germany, the AfD has already risen to a new people's party. And in the East, many Christian Democrats are already more or less openly asking if they should not co-opt with the right-wing populists. That would throw the CDU into a ordeal.

The election campaign of recent weeks has shown how deep the ditch is that tore the era of Merkel. But just for that reason it was right that the CDU got involved in the rather unfamiliar experiment of intra-party democracy. Anyone who has followed the regional conferences could experience a party that almost eagerly seized the opportunity to hold all the debates that have been stifled in recent years by the government's daily routine. The CDU will now have to learn to govern and quarrel at the same time.

Election to the CDU party presidency

1001 delegates determine the party chairmanship on Friday

Stand: 4:59 pm, runoff

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

51.75%

Friedrich Merz

48.25%