Free Republic

The woman who was widely seen as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chosen successor will not lead her crisis-racked CDU party into upcoming elections, a party source told AFP on Monday. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK, took over from Merkel as CDU chairwoman and presumed shoo-in for chancellor in 2018 but “has now said she will not be a candidate for the chancellery”, the source said. She made the surprise announcement after telling a crunch CDU meeting that the center-right party had “an unresolved relationship” with the far-right AfD party and the far left. It comes after an election debacle in...

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has been elected leader of Germany's ruling Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party, bringing Angela Merkel's 18 years at the helm to an end. As the party's general secretary, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer was favourite to take over when Mrs Merkel announced her retirement in October. But she clinched only a narrow victory over Friedrich Merz, a long-time Merkel rival, in a run-off vote in Hamburg, with 51.8% of the vote. Now the head of Germany's largest party, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, could become the next German chancellor.