Germany's CDU Elects Angela Merkel's Anointed Successor As Party Leader

[Swordsmyth]

Germany's Christian Democratic Union delivered a badly needed victory to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday when members elected 56-year-old moderate lawmaker Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the outgoing Chancellor's preferred successor, to succeed her as party leader.

After her party suffered yet another lackluster result in regional elections in its stronghold of Hesse - where its share of the vote fell by more than 11 points (its junior partner in her governing grand coalition, the Social Democrats, also slumped) - Merkel announced last month that she would not seek another term as chancellor after her current term ends in 2021. She also resigned as party leader, creating an opportunity for her party to anoint an heir who will be the presumptive favorite to win the chancellorship after Merkel retires from politics. As one journalist pointed out on Twitter, by choosing Kramp-Karrenbauer with a slight majority of 51.7%, the German conservatives have decided on continuity. The former chief minister of Saarland won 517 of the 999 votes cast, narrowly winning over 63-year-old executive Friedrich Merz, who represented a chance for the party to return to its conservative roots after 18 years of center-right rule.

Picking Merkel's favored candidate Kramp-Karrenbauer as Leader w/ 51.7%, German Conservatives choose continuity.
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) December 7, 2018

CDU party elders and lawmakers voted by secret ballot after each of the three main candidates first given the chance to make their pitch. In addition to Kramp-Karrenbauer and Merz, Health Minister Jens Spahn also ran, but finished a distant third.
Friday's vote was preceded by an extended goodbye to Merkel, as party members waved signs that read "Thanks, boss" and honored her with a standing ovation lasting more than nine minutes following Merkel's final speech as CDU leader. Merkel didn't publicly endorse a candidate, but her preference for Kramp-Karrenbauer was widely known.
Offering un-subtle hints about her preference for Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel praised the party's gains in Saarland, the district represented by Kramp-Karrenbauer, while declaring that the CDU couldn't go back to its old (conservative) ways, a dig at Merz. While Karrenbauer has strong chance at the chancellorship, if support for the CDU continues to recede at the rate that it has been over the last year - where the far-right Alternative for Germany has made strong gains.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...r-party-leader

[Swordsmyth]

Local members of Germany's ruling Christian Democrats have quit in protest at Angela Merkel's chosen successor winning the race to lead the party.
Just a day after the CDU appeared to end weeks of infighting by voting in Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as "mini Merkel", delegates at the party's congress told The Sunday Telegraph of a wave of resignations among rank and file members.
Victory for Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer is seen by many as a failure of the party to learn from the mistakes of Mrs Merkel, and a missed opportunity to regain ground on the Right on key issues such as immigration.
Party delegates from several regions of Germany confirmed that members left the CDU after Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer defeated pro-business figure Frierdich Merz by a mere 35 of the 999 delegate votes on Friday. One prominent party figure confirmed that “very many” of the party rank and file had quit.


“The CDU had a chance to change its course and it didn’t take it,” Urban Lanig, a delegate from southern state of Baden-Württemberg, said on Saturday. Seven people have left his local party chapter in the past 24 hours, he said.
Describing AKK’s policy positions as “a cheap imitation of the Social Democrats,” Mr Urban said the CDU would continue its tailspin in popularity under its new leader.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdu-party...154035801.html

[Swordsmyth]

The new leader of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) outlined plans on Sunday to change the party's migrant policies before next year's European election, signalling that she could break with her mentor Angela Merkel's liberal approach.The conservative party elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to replace Merkel as their leader on Friday, making her frontrunner to become the next chancellor of Germany, which has Europe's biggest economy.
However, the narrow win over the more conservative Friedrich Merz exposed splits in Germany's biggest party, which she must try to close before next May's vote for the European Parliament and four state elections in 2019.
One of the deepest divisions is over migrant policy.
"I want to convene a 'workshop discussion' on migration and security with experts and critics of migrant and refugee policies to work on concrete improvements," Kramp-Karrenbauer told Bild am Sonntag weekly.
"Our programme for the European election will build on these results."


By voting for Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU chose continuity but the new leader told German television this did not exclude some changes.
"You stand on the shoulders of your predecessor. What is good is continued and where there is room to change things, we will make changes," she told broadcaster ARD.
While Kramp-Karrenbauer was less critical of Merkel's migrant policy than her rivals in the leadership contest, she has argued that migrants must learn German and those with a criminal record cannot stay. But most of all, she has stressed that the CDU must not dwell too long on the damaging issue.


Former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Handelsblatt the CDU had made a mistake with its choice.
"Merz would have been the chance to set the two main parties further apart from each other so the fringes on the left and right would get weaker. That is not just important for the CDU and SPD but for all Germany," he told Handelsblatt daily.

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/germa...142807293.html