Merkel’s party accelerates leadership race

Bloomberg

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will accelerate the process of appointing a new leader as the party struggles to emerge from political turmoil.
A special party conference will be held to choose a successor to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on April 25, according to a CDU official. The party chairwoman who shocked Germany’s political establishment this month by abandoning ambitions of succeeding Merkel as chancellor set the plan in motion at a leadership meeting on Monday in Berlin. Kramp-Karrenbauer was due to hold a press conference on Monday.
Kramp-Karrenbauer originally planned to have the party decide on a chief this summer and sign off on the pick at a regular party convention in December. Concerns about the risks of an extended power struggle prodded numerous party officials to push for a faster process. A disastrous election result in Hamburg on February 23, when the CDU posted its worst performance in the city state since World War II, drove home the need for urgency.
The emerging number of contenders and the tighter timetable will make a leadership contest inevitable, according to a senior party official. Last week, potential candidates including Health Minister Jens Spahn had raised the prospect of a “team solution” that would determine a leader internally and avoid a potentially bruising power struggle.
The incoming CDU chief would have the inside track to run for chancellor at the next election, which is due in the fall of 2021 at the latest. If the winner ends up being from the more conservative wing of the party rather than a centrist in Merkel’s mold, the faster decision could intensify pressure on Merkel to step down earlier than the end of her fourth term.
The vote in Hamburg reflected a realignment in Germany’s political establishment with the CDU declining and the Greens soaring. Party leaders drew a straight line from the fiasco in Thuringia to the Hamburg result.