• Angela Merkel will leave politics at the end of her mandate: the end of an era in Germany and Europe

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07 December 2018 In Hamburg the last act for Angela Merkel to lead her party.

The leader who has marked a decade of German and European history for the last time presents herself at the CDU congress as leader of her party.

And the (not easy) succession opens up.



A long applause interrupts her.

Interrupted by a long applause as soon as the first words are spoken, Angela Merkel reminds the delegates to the Congress of the Hamburg party who will have to elect her successor, of the electoral successes achieved by the CDU.

In particular, the Chancellor mentions the Saarland of Annegret-Kramp Karrenbauer, the candidate closest to her.

"We have the strength to reverse the trends, to win the elections if we fight united and determined," he says.



"We will come out united"

In the opening speech, the Chancellor launched an appeal to the CDU and the allies of the CSU for unity, because "we will come out united," she said in the last speech as party leader.

"The goal is to have a strong CDU for a good future of the country - he added in front of the delegates of the congress - Who if not us, CDU and CSU, who if not us can carry on Christian-democratic values, with our Christian understanding of people".



 Angela Merkel is counting on the CDU to come out "mature, motivated and united" from the vote that is celebrated today in Hamburg, where 1001 delegates will have to choose the Chancellor's successor to the presidency of the Christian Democratic Union.

"Together we want our CDU, a strong, center party, to live up to its mandate, to guarantee the right offer for the country's future," he said.



"Politics is seeing through the eyes of others"

"For fifty years it was we Christian Democrats who presented the Chancellor in Germany: a total of 50 years of government responsibility. It is a reason for humility rather than pride: because imagining and managing politics means seeing the world also through the eyes of others. Knowing that the world is not black and white, but multiple and colorful, because we have always believed in compromise, because we do not believe in answers simple ".



CDU guide, Karrenbauer-Merz ballot

And in Hamburg we go to the ballot between Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Friedrich Merz, for the presidency of the CDU after Merkel.

The result of the voting at the party congress has not brought a winner so far: out of 999 votes, 999 have been valid.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had 450 votes, Friedrich Merz 392 and Jens Spahn 157. 



Poll: Germans would like AKK

The Germans would vote with a majority the "Merkelian" Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as "AKK", for the post-Merkel at the helm of the CDU : this is what emerges from a Trendbarometer survey by RTL-Ntv released while the congress of Christian Democrats in Hamburg was opening.

"Akk" has obtained 41% of the citizens' preferences, with a considerable gap compared to the main challenger, the conservative Friedrich Merz, which stops at 28%, while the young outsider, Jens Spahn, does not collect more than 5%.