Germany: which successor for Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer at the head of the CDU?

Text by: RFI Follow

Angela Merkel has therefore failed to prepare her succession in an orderly manner. With Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer who threw in the towel Monday morning also announces the return of the men at the head of the German right. None of the possible suitors have yet revealed their intentions, but names are circulating.

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Friedrich Merz, holding a bar to the right to recover voters who left for the AfD, stands ready: this lawyer resigned last week from his very controversial job for an investment fund.

Another candidate who would further weaken the chancellor: Jens Spahn, very critical in 2015 of his policy of welcoming refugees. Also very dynamic in government, with the coronavirus crisis the Minister of Health is increasing the number of appearances in the media and international travel. For observers, his young age - he is 39 - and his assumed homosexuality could cost him votes in a party that remains very conservative on social issues.

Facing them, Armin Laschet, baron of the CDU, leader of a very large German region and of the most important federation of the party. A close friend of Angela Merkel, very active against crime, acceptable to the most conservative.

Finally, Markus Söder is cited as a candidate for the chancellery only. Leader of the CSU, an allied party of the CDU, Bavarian defender of traditional Christian values, he tries to refocus his image. Against an alliance with the extreme right, he now poses at the age of 53 as an environmental defender.

► Read also: Germany: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel's runner-up, steps down

■ Resignation: regional and national consequences

The resignation of the so-called AKK will have regional and national consequences for the CDU party, according to Johann Chapoutot, lecturer in Grenoble and member of the Institut universitaire de France (IUF).

As for the CDU at the federal level, we will have to elect a new or a new party leader and also decide a political line which for the moment was not very clear since these are the disastrous instructions of the federal leadership of the CDU who led the CDU of Thuringia to an even more disastrous policy.

Johann Chapoutot, lecturer in Grenoble and member of the Institut universitaire de France (IUF)

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• Germany
• Angela Merkel

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Germany: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel's runner-up, steps down

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CDU-AfD alliance in Thuringia: Merkel's party in turmoil