The headwind for CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in his own party is increasing: CDU European politician Elmar Brok expects the Union to set up a chancellor candidate of the sister party CSU for the next federal election.
"There are some indications that the chancellor's candidacy is being regulated as it has been twice in the history of the Union," said Brok, who also belongs to the CDU Federal Executive, the editorial network Germany (RND).
In 1979, the then Federal Chairman Helmut Kohl waived in favor of Franz Josef Strauss, 2001 then Angela Merkel Edmund Stoiber had the lead. "I'm convinced that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has the peace of mind to make a similar decision when the time is right," said Brok.
The head of the CDU and defense minister had said that she would be chancellor candidate and would make her decision at the appropriate moment. "She has said that she will lead the nomination as party leader from scratch, and if the coalition is not terminated prematurely, this decision will not be made before November or December 2020."
Will Söder ever?
Brok's assessment could amount to the fact that the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU boss Markus Söder is a candidate. Söder had said a good two weeks ago in an interview with SPIEGEL that the Union leaders should agree to appoint a chancellor candidate.
Asked whether he would exclude his own top candidate, Söder said: "My job is Bavaria, which does not mean that I will not be involved in the national effort for the Union, but as prime minister and CSU chairman."
Recently, however, the historic defeat of the CDU had rekindled the power struggle and directional dispute in the party in the state election in Thuringia. The CDU had sunk to the historic low of 21.8 percent and landed behind Linkspartei and AfD only in third place. Before the CDU party congress (22/23 November in Leipzig), therefore, a new conflict about the next chancellor candidate of the Union is emerging.
CDU-internal dispute: Günther contradicts Merz criticism
The former Union faction leader Friedrich Merz evaluated the election result as a "great vote of no confidence" against the grand coalition in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), who misses "political leadership and clear statements", said that the main focus of the criticism was on ZDF. Several politicians from the ranks of the union and FDP joined this criticism.
Contradiction, however, came from the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther. The ZDF said the CDU politician on Tuesday evening, it was very obvious, "that this is more about settling old bills." He has little understanding for it. In the RND newspapers Günther demanded: "We should now work together against it, that people from the sidelines in the CDU shape the debates."
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