Chancellor’s party takes heavy losses in regional elections
Angela Merkel will not seek re-election as Germany’s chancellor when her term ends in 2021, she has reportedly told senior members of her party.
The comments, reported by the German media, came as the premier met with the leadership of her CDU Christian democratic following heavy losses in regional elections in the state of Hesse.
It has been widely assumed in Germany that this term, which began in 2017, would be Ms Merkel’s last, but there had been no official confirmation of this.
Earlier in the meeting, Ms Merkel had reportedly told party chiefs that she would not run again for the leadership of her party at a conference in December.
This could leave her in the position of staying as Chancellor while not being the leader of her own party. The German constitution has strict rules regulating the process of appointing the Chancellor, with parties nominating a named candidate for the position ahead of elections.
Whoever becomes the new leader of the CDU to succeed Ms Merkel would be the front-runner to be the country’s new chancellor after the next elections, however.
The dpa press agency reports that one candidate could be Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The moderate, who is politically close to Ms Merkel, currently serves as the CDU’s general secretary and was formerly the regional governor of Saarland.
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Dpa says Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, known informally in German political circles as as AKK, told a private meeting of senior party members she would stand for leader at the CDU congress in December.
Other possible contenders could include health minister Jens Spahn?, who has been publicly critical of Ms Merkel’s liberal refugee policy, and Ralph Brinkhaus, who leads the party’s group in the Bundestag having ousted one of Ms Merkel’s allies from the position in a narrow vote last month. ?
Ms Merkel has been leader of her party since 2000 and was elected as chancellor in 2005. If she makes it to the end of her term in 2021 as planned she will be the second longest serving Chancellor in the history of the German federal republic, surpassed by only Helmut Kohl.
The Chancellor, who has developed a reputation for being a canny political survivor, has had a tempestuous year – struggling with coalition negotiations to return to office, and under pressure from both left and right – particularly on the issue of migration.
The iron Frau: Angela Merkel
Most recently Ms Merkel’s CDU has bled liberal voters to the Greens; it had previously suffered losses to the far-right AfD. The waning of her party’s standing in the polls has sapped her once fearsome authority.
The summer was also characterised by a policy row about refugees with the CSU, the CDU’s Bavarian sister party who is has been in alliance with since 1949.
Far too late…it should be TONIGHT…!! With the headlines in tomorrow morning’s news, She will go down in history as the leader who encouraged and implemented the destruction of Europe, almost single-handed.
Hitler tried it HIS way, which ultimately failed, and Merkel has been more successful- with the result hanging in the balance, the EU dithering and mired in globalism, with the scales still tilting deeply on the side of Muslim subjugation..