Yahoo Finance Calls grow for Merkel to hand over to her successor
When Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (known in Germany as AKK) took over the leadership of Germany’s governing Christian Democratic Union party in December, Angela Merkel vowed to stay on as chancellor of Germany until 2021. However, the weakened chancellor’s hopes of remaining in office look far from assured.
Ahead of a coalition summit between Merkel’s CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) this week, politicians on both sides have been arguing over whether it is time for the chancellor to step down.
Alexander Mitsch head of the Werte Union, an ultra-conservative group within the CDU, told the Passauer Neue Presse that it was high time for Merkel to vacate the chancellery. “It would be best for the Union [CDU] if Merkel handed over to AKK as soon as possible,” Mitsch said, so that AKK could appoint a new cabinet and start making policy chances, especially with regards to immigration, ahead of the three big state elections this year.
The new CDU boss has taken pains to distance herself from the chancellor and play to the more conservative within her party with calls for stricter refugee policies. She was harshly criticised for making jokes at the expense of transgender people whilst on stage during the Cologne carnival recently.
It was Kramp-Karrenbauer, not Merkel, who responded via op-ed in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper to French president Emmanuel Macron’s recent call for a more united, reinvigorated European Union.
READ MORE: Merkel’s successor says Germany’s 2015 refugee influx must not happen again
If Merkel were to leave office early, it could mean the breakdown of what is already a shaky coalition government in Berlin. Sigmar Gabriel, former head of the SPD, said at the weekend that he couldn’t imagine AKK running behind Merkel “like a poodle” for the next two years, and that the country could use new leadership. However, others in the SPD say that they would demand fresh elections should Merkel try to simply hand over the reins to AKK.
A poll today by RTL/n-tv showed that two-thirds of Germans do not want to see Merkel leave office early, with 67% of them saying she should remain until 2021.
