BERLIN — Donald Trump famously derided Hillary Clinton as "America's Angela Merkel" on the campaign trail. Now, as Merkel mounts another bid for the chancellorship, her party faithful have begun to worry Trump got it backwards: It's Angela who's starting to look more like Hillary.

Just as Clinton was seen as a sure thing inside her party, both during the primary season and the general election campaign, so Merkel has taken on an aura of inevitability. Indeed, the word Germany's political elite often uses to describe Merkel's candidacy is alternativlos — literally, "without alternative."

Trouble is, the word connotes exasperation, not hope or optimism. In other words, Germany's conservative establishment considers Merkel alternativlos not because they rate her so highly, but rather because they believe she's the only one who can win the election.

That fatalism has given rise to a more subversive strain among some German conservatives. Their rallying cry: Merkel muss weg! (Merkel must go!).

The main problem Merkel faces is that, similar to Clinton, she has become a polarizing figure. As the anti-Merkel graffiti across Germany attests, resistance to her candidacy is building. The pro-Merkel camp, meanwhile, is confident but not nearly as impassioned.

It's not hard to see why Merkel is viewed as inevitable. She has largely recovered from the backlash over her refugee policies by spearheading the EU's agreement with Turkey and tightening Germany's asylum rules. Her approval ratings, which fell well below 50 percent at one point, have recently rebounded well above that mark.

Most importantly, about 55 percent of Germans want her to be the next chancellor, according to a recent survey by Emnid, a German polling firm. What's particularly striking about that support is that much of it comes from the opposition: More than 70 percent of Green voters think the conservative chancellor is doing a good job, according to another recent survey. That's roughly as much support as Merkel gets in her own party.

In addition to Merkel's strong personal ratings, it's difficult to make the coalition math work for any combination that doesn’t include the conservatives. Most analysts are betting either on a continuation of the current grand coalition or a coalition between the conservatives and the Greens. The only potential option that wouldn’t include Merkel has been dubbed R2G, for "red, red, green," a coalition between the Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens. Yet for now, a left-wing alliance remains a long shot, mainly because most Germans say it's their least-favored outcome.

While that may sound like good news for the conservatives, a growing faction worry that Merkel has taken the party too far to the left. Even if she has won over some Greens and center-left voters, those gains have come at the cost of the Christian Democrats' base. Together with its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, Merkel's CDU garnered more than 41 percent of the vote in the last election. These days, they poll at between 32 and 37 percent.

The other Alternative

The more conservative forces in Merkel's party worry that those numbers could fall further if the party doesn't shore up its base. Those tensions will be on display next week in the industrial city of Essen, where the Christian Democrats are holding their annual two-day party conference. Though the highlight of the event will be Merkel's coronation as candidate and the renewal of her position as party leader, the conference is also likely to offer a lively debate over the party's direction.

With right-wing populists on the rise across Europe, including in Germany, where the Alternative for Germany has come out of nowhere to establish itself as a formidable political force over the past couple of years, many in the party believe the Christian Democrats need to show a more conservative face.

For the first time, [Merkel] will have to run a campaign against attacks from both sides.

"These are big times for conservatives and we need to seize the moment," one senior party official said, adding that the conservative strategy of France's François Fillon could serve as a model for the CDU's own campaign.

So far, however, Merkel appears to be moving in the opposite direction, offering voters essentially more of the same. The argument: Don't change a winning strategy.

That strategy, essentially promising voters the status quo with the odd welfare entitlement for the elderly and young people, harkens back to Merkel's last campaign in 2013, when her pitch to voters was "You know me."

The difference this time is that the 62-year-old faces what party officials privately call a “war on two fronts.” For the first time, she will have to run a campaign against attacks from both sides.

“This election will be more difficult than any other since German reunification,” Merkel said on announcing her candidacy in late November.

Right flank

One reason is that her conservatives remain divided over how to deal with the new threat: Should they ring in a new era of CDU hardline conservatism to attack the AfD directly? Or continue on a moderate centrist course at the risk of pushing traditional voters, who accuse Merkel of hollowing out the CDU’s conservative nucleus, into the arms of the far-right?

It’s the elephant in the room, and the question that will dominate next week’s party convention.

Despite the growing pressure to shift right, some high-ranking party officials are convinced the only sure way to win next year's election is to present Merkel as an "anchor of stability" in a chaotic world.

“Elections in Germany are won in the political center,” said a member of the CDU executive committee.

Yet amid the growing backlash against the political establishment, Merkel has taken pains to resist the alternativlos label.

To prevent defections to the far Right, the party plans to flank her with more prominent, outspoken conservatives.

“Everyone is replaceable,” Merkel told public broadcaster ARD in an interview in late November, when asked if there was no alternative to her being the CDU’s candidate.

Many in the CDU are interpreting the party's rise of a few percentage points in polls since she announced her candidacy as a sign that this strategy is starting to pay off. At the same time, to prevent defections to the far Right, the party plans to flank her with more prominent, outspoken conservatives, according to one CDU official in the Bundestag.

As a first gesture, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière is expected to be elected to the CDU executive committee during next week’s conference. Whether that helps underscore support for Merkel will be seen when delegates vote on her bid to remain party leader. When she was last renewed as party chief two years ago — about half a year before refugee arrivals skyrocketed, causing the worst crisis of her career — Merkel garnered 96.7 percent of the votes.

Though she's unlikely to match that support this time, victory is inevitable: Hers will be the only name on the ballot.