Successor to Angela Merkel also says she won’t run for chancellorship of Germany

Angela Merkel’s designated successor has announced she is not planning to run for the German chancellorship at the next federal election and plans to step down as leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), German media reported on Monday morning.

The surprise announcement comes in the middle of a major row over the centre-right party’s “firewall” against the far-right, after CDU delegates in eastern Germany defied the party headquarter’s ban on cooperating with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 57, won the contest to succeed Merkel as leader of the CDU in December 2018 and was seen as the candidate most likely to continue the current German chancellor’s centrist course.

But “AKK”, as she has come to be known in German media, has struggled to build a profile in Merkel’s shadow, even after doubling up as defence minister last July.

“I will not run for chancellor,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told a news conference in Berlin on Monday, adding that she had been building up to the decision for some time and that she made it “with the intention of strengthening the CDU”.

“In my view, this has no impact on the stability of the grand coalition,” she said, referring to the national coalition between Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats.

Questions over her control over an increasingly divided CDU returned to the fore last week, when politicians from the party’s branch in Thuringia voted with the AfD to oust the state’s premier Bodo Ramelow, from the leftwing Die Linke party.

Merkel’s unusual decision to intervene in the affair, announcing that it was “unforgivable” for democratic parties to win majorities with the help of the AfD, accentuated Kramp-Karrenbauer’s lack of authority.

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s standing was further diminished when the CDU’s Thuringia branch defied her call to dissolve the state parliament and call a fresh election.

On Monday morning news magazine Der Spiegel reported that Kramp-Karrenbauer had cited the unclear positions of certain elements in her party towards the AfD and Die Linke as the reason for her resignation, and reiterated that she was against cooperations with both parties.

Q&A Who could be the next CDU leader? Show Hide Friedrich Merz

The 63-year-old lawyer left politics for the financial industry about a decade ago, but stepped down from his role at asset manager Blackrock last week, saying he wanted to get "more politically involved" in the future. Having been ousted as parliamentary leader of the CDU by Merkel in 2002, many have said he has never forgiven the chancellor, though he has downplayed the idea of any lasting resentment towards her.

Merz has built up a personal fortune of millions, including two private jets, which has caused controversy, particularly after he claimed that he remained a member of the middle class. He promises to return the CDU to its former strong position. He says he can win back millions of voters who drifted to the AfD and has presented himself as more liberal than in the past on issues such as gay marriage Jens Spahn

Still aged only 39, the youngest member of Merkel’s fourth cabinet has in the past portrayed himself first and foremost as a critic of the chancellor’s refugee policy, calling it “the white elephant in the room”. But his stint at the health ministry has revealed a new side to the ambitious and energetic politician, who has fought to introduce policies that weren't a natural fit with his previous free-market conservative profile, such as compulsory measles vaccinations for children. He is married to his long-term partner Daniel Funke, the editor of society magazine Bunte. Armin Laschet A staunch defender of Merkel's migration policy and an uncompromising critic of the AfD, Laschet holds a natural position of authority in the CDU as premier of the large state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Laschet pulled off a coup by ousting the Social Democratic Party in this traditional centre-left stronghold in 2017. Known as a moderate in policy terms, Laschet is also still relatively unknown at federal level.



Norbert Röttgen The senior German conservative politician has put himself forward as a surprise candidate. He has something of a national profile due to his role as head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, but is not seen as a big hitter in the party. He also served as an environment minister under Merkel from 2009 to 2012. In the past, Röttgen has been seen as someone who could work with the Greens, currently the second-biggest party in the polls after the conservative bloc.

Merkel said she accepted the resignation of her designated successor, who was previously a state premier in the Saarland on the border with France, while also letting it be known that she would like AKK to stay on as defence minister.

“I regard this decision with the deepest respect, though I also have to say I greatly regret it,” Merkel told a news conference on Monday afternoon. “I can imagine this wasn’t an easy decision for her and I thank her for being prepared to stay on to steer the process of choosing a successor.”

The vacant seat at the top of Germany’s most powerful party since 1945 opens up a debate over the country’s political direction of travel in the post-Merkel period.

At least four frontrunners present themselves. Armin Laschet, the 58-year-old state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia and a staunch defender of Merkel’s refugee policy, would be the candidate most likely to continue the outgoing chancellor’s steering of the CDU in the centre of the political stream.

By contrast, the anointment of veteran rightwinger Friedrich Merz, who lost out to Kramp-Karrenbauer in the race for the party leadership in 2018, would symbolise a departure from the Merkel era and a return to the CDU’s more traditionally conservative roots. Merz, who isn’t currently a member of the Bundestag but quit his role at asset manager Blackrock last week, has in recent months openly criticised Merkel’s “lack of leadership”.

Two other candidates are less easily categorised. Markus Söder, the state premier of Bavaria, hails from the CDU’s traditional more conservative sister-party, the CSU. But in recent years Söder has proved a canny and popular political operator who has emphasised his party’s environmental credentials and could prepare the party for a coalition with the Green party at a political level. During last week’s political earthquake in Thuringia, Söder was quickest to come out in condemnation of any form of collaboration with the far-right. On Monday he denied rumours he was considering the role.

Thirty-nine year old Jens Spahn used to have a profile as a Merkel critic but has mellowed since taking over the health ministry, and recently pitched his tent closer to the chancellor’s pragmatist camp, championing both “migration and patriotism” in an op-ed for the Guardian. Spahn came third in the 2018 leadership contest.