Merkel party braces for power struggle over succession fiasco

Bloomberg

With Angela Merkel’s succession plan unraveling, her Christian Democrats (CDU) are bracing for an open power struggle at the party’s national convention later this month.
Less than a year after picking Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to head the CDU, a consensus is building among party officials that she’s not suited to run for chancellor after a series of gaffes, poor election results and fading popularity, according to people familiar with the matter.
While elections aren’t officially slated until 2021, some party leaders are increasingly concerned that a contest for
the chancellery candidate may come sooner rather than later, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.
The heightened sense of urgency is driven by the prospect that the embattled Social Democrats might pull out of the coalition after electing new leadership in December, and the tensions could erupt when the CDU chief faces members at a convention starting on Novemember 22 in Leipzig, they said.