Of course it would be absurd to speak of sadism, but the Chancellor, whose party book only the elderly will remember, does not care about her successors at the top of the CDU (that's right, it was the party). The icy coolness with which Angela Merkel acknowledged the failure of her preferred candidate Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and partly promoted it was one thing. The current number to give the newly elected party leader Armin Laschet through her Chancellery Minister is unique.