Merkel’s chosen successor Kramp-Karrenbauer will not run for chancellor, to resign from party leader
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The party leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said she will not run for chancellor. She will also step down from as party leader.
Kramp-Karrenbauer surprised party leadership on Monday by announcing that she will step down from her position as the head of the party and would not run for chancellor. The jobs should be done by the same person, she is reported to have said.
She will organize the process of finding a new candidate by summertime and then step down from her leadership role, the party source said, adding that Merkel wants Kramp-Karrenbauer to remain Germany’s defense minister.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, Angela Merkel’s chosen successor, has been left severely weakened after a rebellion within her Christian Democrat party (CDU).
Mrs Merkel was forced to intervene this week after CDU members voted with the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) to bring down a regional government.
The move was condemned as breaking the longstanding taboo on mainstream German parties cooperating with the far-Right, and openly compared with the rise of the Nazis in 1930.
When Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK as she likes to be known, became CDU leader in 2018, it was widely seen as paving the way for her to succeed Mrs Merkel as chancellor.
