GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel will soon be wrapping up a historic 16 years in power, leaving behind an uncertain legacy.

In office so long she was dubbed Germany’s “eternal chancellor”, Merkel (67) leaves with her popularity so resilient she would likely have won a record fifth term had she sought it.

Instead, Merkel will pass the baton as the first German chancellor to step down entirely by choice. Germans will head to the polls tomorrow to elect new members of the Bundestag (parliament).

Merkel’s supporters say she provided steady, pragmatic leadership through countless global crises as a moderate and unifying figure.

Yet critics argue that a muddle-through style of leadership, pegged to the broadest possible consensus, lacked the bold vision to prepare Europe and its top economy for the coming decades.

What is certain is that she leaves behind a fractured political landscape and her party the Christian Democrat Union’s new candidate, Armin Laschet, has struggled to sharpen his own profile.

His Social Democratic opponent, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, has actively – and perhaps successfully – sold himself as the real continuity candidate.

Assuming she stays on to hand over power, Merkel will tie or exceed Helmut Kohl’s longevity record for a post-war leader, depending on how long the upcoming coalition negotiations last.

Angela Merkel at a bird park in Germany this week. – Source: DPA/PA Images

‘Do the right thing’

The unflappable Merkel has served for many in recent years as a welcome counter-balance to other world leaders like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

A Pew Research Center poll this week showed large majorities in most democracies around the globe having “confidence in Merkel to do the right thing in world affairs”.

However, the last days of her tenure have also been marred by what Merkel called the “bitter, dramatic and terrible” return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan – a debacle in which she shares the blame as Germany completed its evacuation.

A trained quantum chemist, Merkel has long been in sync with her change-averse electorate as a guarantor of stability.

Her major policy shifts reflected the wishes of large German majorities – among them phasing out nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster – and attracted a broad new coalition of women and urban voters to the once arch-conservative Christian Democratic Union.

Refugees waiting to cross the German-Austrian border in 2015. – Source: DPA/PA Images

‘Austerity queen’

Before the pandemic, Merkel’s boldest move – opening German borders in 2015 to more than one million asylum seekers – seemed set to determine her legacy.

But while many Germans rallied to this move, it also emboldened an anti-migrant party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), ushering a far-right bloc into parliament for the first time since World War II.

At the same time, hardline leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban accused the chancellor of “moral imperialism” with her welcoming stance.

Six years on, she lamented this month that the European Union appears no closer to a unified policy on migration.

The woman once known as the “climate chancellor” for pushing renewables also faces a mass movement of young activists arguing she has failed to face up to the climate emergency, with Germany not even meeting its own emissions-reduction commitments.

Merkel became Europe’s go-to leader during the eurozone crisis when Berlin championed spending cuts in return for international bailout loans for debt-mired countries like Ireland.

Angry protesters criticized Merkel and labelled her Europe’s “austerity queen” while defenders credit her with holding the currency union together.

Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Angela Merkel at a press conference in 2011. – Source: DPA/PA Images

Earlier life

Merkel started as a contemporary of former US president George W Bush, former UK prime minister Tony Blair and former president of France Jacques Chirac when she became Germany’s youngest and first female chancellor in 2005.

She was born in 1954 in the German port city of Hamburg, the daughter of a Lutheran clergyman and a school teacher.

Her father moved the family to a small-town parish in the communist East at a time when tens of thousands were headed the other way.

She excelled in mathematics and Russian, which has helped her maintain a dialogue with Putin.

Merkel, born as Angela Kasner, kept the surname of her first husband whom she married in 1977 and divorced five years later.

File image of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder handing over the Federal Chancellery to Angela Merkel in Berlin, Germany in 2005. – Source: DPA/PA Images

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Merkel, who was working in a chemistry lab, joined a pro-democracy group that would merge with former chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats.

Merkel, a Protestant from the East whom Kohl nicknamed his “girl”, would later be elected leader of a party until then dominated by western Catholic patriarchs.

As she rose to power, party rivals sneeringly called her “Mutti” (Mummy) behind her back but she deftly – some said ruthlessly – eliminated potential challengers.

Although her name has come up on wish lists for key EU or United Nations posts, Merkel has said she will leave politics altogether after leaving her role as chancellor.

Asked on her final trip to Washington in June what she looked forward to most, she replied “not having to constantly make decisions”.

Additional reporting by Orla Dwyer.

Source: https://www.thejournal.ie/profile-angela-merkel-5557389-Sep2021/

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Markus Söder heads the Christian Social Union

Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder bowed out of the contest to be the conservative CDU/CSU bloc’s candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany’s September general election.

“The die is cast. Armin Laschet will be the CDU/CSU’s candidate for chancellor,” Söder told a press conference in Munich. This brought to an end what was seen as an acrimonious power struggle, during which Söder and his growing number of supporters pointed to the CSU chair’s better performance in opinion polls, which could make him a more competitive candidate.

Few German politicians have seen their fortunes rise in public opinion during the coronavirus crisis as much as Markus Söder, Bavaria’s state premier and head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the conservative Bavarian allies to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). As the chair to the council of state premiers, he has played a prominent part in crisis meetings.

Söder began his latest tenure as state premier in April 2018, following his reelection, with a hymn to his home state: “Bavaria is seeing golden times. Bavaria is strong. Bavaria will grow. Bavaria is solid. Bavaria is safe. Here the world is still in order, and it will stay that way.” The subtext of that speech was the CSU’s age-old message: Bavaria is fine as long as the CSU is fine.

A political all-rounder

But Söder’s rise to the top was a long struggle that has seen delays, patience, haggling, and probably a fair bit of skullduggery and backroom dealing.

Horst Seehofer and Markus Söder were bitter rivals for many years

Markus Söder spent a long time as a regional wannabe. After all, he was made CSU party leader as early as 2003, a post he held for four years. But there was little doubt: he was aiming for the top. Like Franz-Josef Strauss before him, he embodied the drive, the dynamism, and the pride that many Bavarians believe is their hallmark.

Yet it took him another 11 long years before he was strong enough to overtake his predecessor Horst Seehofer — currently Germany’s interior minister — to become Bavarian state premier. The rivalry between the two was bitter — and on occasion, simply out of control. Söder, CSU general secretary as long ago as 2003 to 2007, never made a secret of his sense of a higher calling.

After 2007, he took on a string of posts in the Bavarian Cabinet: minister for federal and European affairs, minister for environment and health, minister of finance, development, and Heimat – that untranslatable patriotic German word whose closest equivalent is homeland. It was only in March 2018 that he finally took over from his longtime rival Horst Seehofer, the current federal interior minister, as head of the Bavarian government.

As a youngster, Söder was an admirer of Franz Josef Strauss.

Ambition and patience

Ironically, although the 54-year-old highlights his loyalty and dedication to Bavaria in almost every statement, he is in fact something of an outsider. He hails from a pocket of Bavaria called Franconia, where people fly their own flags, sing their own songs, and worship their own football team.

Söder might have been Bavarian premier since 2018, but he is quick to point out that he was not born in the opulent state capital Munich, but rather in the historic city of Nuremberg, the capital of Franconia. Add to that: Söder is also a Protestant in a Bavaria that insists fiercely on its Catholic identity. And it goes without saying that the football team he supports so feverishly is not Bayern Munich, but 1.FC Nürnberg.

As a youngster, Söder was not just a fan of his local football team, but also an admirer of the man who more than any other personified post-World War II Bavaria: Franz Josef Strauss. The mercurial, compelling and sometimes authoritarian Strauss led the CSU party — the Bavarian conservatives — for nearly three decades, during which he also served as a cabinet minister in Bonn and chief minister in Bavaria. The young Markus Söder was fascinated by Strauss — not least by his legendary rhetorical wizardry — and hung a picture of the fiery rabble-rouser above his bed.

For a carnival event in 2016 Markus Söder chose to dress up as Bavaria’s King Ludwig II

Representing both the traditional and the modern

Söder has also been able to encompass the whole spectrum from the traditional to the modern. “We want to be modern but stay Bavarian,” he said in his first government declaration in April 2018. “We will manage the future and care for the problems of every individual. Do and care — about the broad strokes and the small worries: that’s our philosophy.” But since the Bavarian state election in October 2018, which brought a historically poor 36.7% for the CSU, he has had to share his government with conservative rivals, the Freie Wähler (Free Voters).

Yet he quickly became a strong partner for Merkel, ending the days when the Seehofer-led CSU occasionally appeared to act as the strongest opposition party to their CDU partners. Söder led the center-right attacks on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), opposing both left and right-wing extremists.

Markus Söder outperformed Armin Laschet in opinion polls

As the coronavirus crisis began, it was Söder who rose to be among the most popular politicians in Germany. His quick, clear declarations — from closing schools to stopping professional football — left other state premiers trailing behind him, particularly Armin Laschet, leader of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, who eventually beat him to be the conservative bloc’s candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor.

And today? “His only real political goal was to become chief minister of Bavaria. Well, he achieved that,” Munich journalist Roman Deininger tells DW.

The fact remains: Becoming the conservative candidate to replace Angela Merkel in September’s national election is one thing; however, winning that election is quite another. And, as observers have continually cautioned: this is an election where there is a lot to lose.

This article has been translated from German and was updated since its first publication.

While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year’s elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-markus-s%C3%B6der-bavarias-premier/a-53525147

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The three men are battling to replace Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as CDU leader | Bernd von Jutrczenka/Getty Images

Friedrich Merz, one of the candidates to become leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, on Monday said the country would have significantly fewer people claiming unemployment benefits if it hadn’t been for mass immigration.

Speaking alongside his fellow candidates Armin Laschet (premier of North Rhine-Westphalia) and Norbert Röttgen (chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign relations committee) during a televised debate, Merz said that “had it not been for the immigration into our social systems in 2015 and 2016, we’d have 1 million unemployment benefit recipients less in Germany today.”

The three men are battling to replace Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as CDU leader after her surprise decision to step back from the role and relinquish her aspirations of succeeding Angela Merkel as chancellor.

The candidates discussed the coronavirus pandemic and how it is increasing economic and social inequality, with Laschet and Röttgen acknowledging that the pandemic has been hardest on the poorest.

As for the economy after the coronavirus, Merz reiterated his belief that a so-called debt brake should be used to avoid public debt spiraling out of control. Röttgen said the aim should not be to return to how things were before the pandemic, adding: “We need a new beginning, not nostalgia”

Hours before the event kicked off, the CDU’s secretary-general Paul Ziemiak announced that due to the pandemic, the next party conference, which has already been rescheduled twice, will be held online on January 15 and 16. At the conference, party delegates will elect one of the three men as the CDU’s new leader. The winner will become the party’s presumptive candidate for chancellor and, assuming the CDU and its Bavarian sister party hold their top position, Germany’s next chancellor.

“We act responsibly during the current situation as we don’t hold a physical party conference, which is why we are going to be the first party in Germany that conducts an entirely digital conference,” Ziemiak said, adding that there would be a digital vote to determine the new party leader on January 16, followed by a confirmatory mail-in ballot with results announced on January 22.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/cdu-leadership-race-enters-crucial-phase-as-candidates-lock-horns-in-tv-debate/

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures at the end of her speech to members of her Christian Democratic Union party in Hamburg on Friday.CLEMENS BILAN / EPA

HAMBURG, Germany — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s final speech as leader of her party was met with an 11-minute standing ovation on Friday.

The address marked the beginning of her gradual exit from both German politics and the world stage. Merkel has led the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000, and been the country’s chancellor since 2005.

“It is now the time to open a new chapter, it was a great pleasure for me, it was an honor,” Merkel said as she concluded her speech. Delegates held up signs reading: “Thank You, Boss.”

Merkel, 64, later handed the baton to a successor at the party congress in Hamburg.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was widely seen as the chancellor’s favorite and has been branded a “mini-Merkel” by some media outlets, was elected as her replacement on Friday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer — who often goes by her initials AKK — got about 52 percent of the vote in in a run-off with Friedrich Merz, a former lawmaker who left politics to work as a corporate lawyer.

German party leaders, including Merkel, have traditionally been selected through backroom deals and faced no competition during confirmation votes at party conventions.

But for the first time since 1971, CDU delegates were on Friday given the opportunity to elect their new party leader from among several candidates.

Like Merkel, Kramp-Karrenbauer represents the more moderate wing of their party. The 56-year-old is a mother of three who previously served as the governor of the small German state of Saarland.

The two other candidates who hoped to replace her for the CDU post had both openly criticized some of the chancellor’s policies in the past.

Jens Spahn, Germany’s 38-year-old health minister, repeatedly spoke out against Merkel’s open-door migration policy which resulted in the arrival of nearly a million refugees.

Merz presented himself as the candidate who could bring back voters from the far-right populist AfD.

Amid rising anti-foreigner sentiment in Germany, the anti-immigration and anti-E.U. AfD won 13 percent of the votes in the German state of Hesse in October.

“The times today are challenging for our country, for our party, with the AfD on the right and a polarization of society,” Merkel warned in her speech.

Merkel also had a message for President Donald Trump, stating that her party had to show its strengths in an age of “growing renunciation of multilateralism” and in times of “reducing international cooperation to the principles of deal-making.”

Judith Hoerning, a 23-year-old delegate, told NBC News that while Merkel had “shaped the party in a good way” she believed her decision to step down was “courageous and right because the party needs transformation now.”

Jens Eckhoff, a 52-year-old delegate from Bremen, said he was happy AKK was elected because he believed she could “help gain voters in the center and can also win against the populists with good arguments.”

Germany’s neighbors are already concerned that the departure of Europe’s longest serving leader could weaken the European Union.

“There is still huge respect for Merkel because she gave stability in Europe at a time when things were rocky,” said Judy Dempsey, a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank.

Andy Eckardt

Andy Eckardt is a producer based in Mainz, Germany. He started this role in 1994.

Carlo Angerer is a multimedia producer and reporter based in Mainz, Germany.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/angela-merkel-s-cdu-about-elect-her-replacement-n944726

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, with Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer during a meeting in Berlin earlier this month.John MacDougall / AFP – Getty Images

DUSSELDORF, Germany — Widely regarded as the world’s most powerful woman for more than a decade, Angela Merkel is seeing her time on the world stage draw to a close.

But the front-runner to replace her as the leader of Germany’s biggest political party laughed when confronted with the suggestion that she is little more than a Merkel clone.

“I think people see me as authentic, just like I am, with my ideas, my style of doing politics,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told NBC News after a campaign rally. “There are similarities with Angela Merkel, there are issues that separate us, and I’m showing that genuinely and authentically and won’t create an artificial separation because it has something to do with character and attitude.”

Merkel has led the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000 and been Germany’s chancellor since 2005.

She announced last month that she would not seek re-election as chair of the CDU at the party’s conference this Friday and would also not run for chancellor at the next scheduled election in 2021. “I wasn’t born a chancellor,” she said at the time, “and I never forgot this.”

Around 4,000 party members gathered in Düsseldorf last week to listen to the candidates make the case for why they should follow in Merkel’s footsteps. Kramp-Karrenbauer is the most closely aligned with Merkel’s moderate policies.

“I’ve never known a CDU without Merkel,” said Dominic Hoge, 22, who traveled two-and-a-half hours by train to the regional conference. “I want to know where the candidates stand on the issues.”

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is seen as “much tougher and more conservative than Merkel” on immigration.Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Renate Rüttler, 72, who has been a party member for over four decades, said it was time for change.

“Mrs. Merkel has been here for a long time,” she said. “I want to see a different face.”

Rüttler said she had not made up her mind yet on who the best candidate was, but said she was ready to support Kramp-Karrenbauer if she can prove she is not “mini-Merkel,” as she has been branded by some media outlets.

“I would like for her to leave the Merkel lane,” she said. “I think she can do it. Everybody has to grow.”

Merkel’s open-door policy for refugees cemented her reputation as the strongest defender of liberal values on the world stage, even as she led a conservative party at home. About 1 million migrants arrived in Germany during 2015, and critics say that has spurred the rising tide of populism across Europe.

In recent years, the CDU has lost voters to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), creating a challenge for its next leader.

Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn, who are also running against Kramp-Karrenbauer, have promised a more conservative route forward.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, was appointed as secretary general of the CDU in February. The move was widely seen as a sign that she is Merkel’s favored successor.

“Even though Chancellor Merkel never openly endorsed Kramp-Karrenbauer, it is well known that the two women have a very good and trustful relationship,” said Stefan Marschall, a political scientist at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf.

But he added that Kramp-Karrenbauer is also “trying to distance herself from Angela Merkel.”

Kristina Dunz, a journalist who recently published a biography of Kramp-Karrenbauer, said that she is “clearly not a mini-Merkel” despite often being described as such.

But like Merkel she is known to be highly analytical in times of crisis, “rather unemotional” and very much “down to earth,” Dunz said.

On migration issues, the mother of three is perceived to be “much tougher and more conservative than Merkel,” according to Dunz.

She cited Kramp-Karrenbauer’s time as governor of the small German state of Saarland when she “made it clear that refugees should adopt to German values,” Dunz added.

Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters at a recent press conference in Berlin that migration “is not issue No. 1, but it’s there as an issue, and there’s no point not talking about it.”

A poll of CDU supporters conducted by NBC News’ German partner ZDF found that nearly one-third of respondents described Kramp-Karrenbauer as “credible” and “personable.” Merz received only 15 percent in the same categories.

When asked “who would be more likely to represent the interests of ordinary citizens,” 33 percent of those polled named Kramp-Karrenbauer, with Merz at 9 percent and Spahn under 5 percent.

However, the poll suggested Merz — a corporate lawyer, finance expert and former member of Germany’s Parliament — was viewed as a more competent candidate (28 percent) than Kramp-Karrenbauer (16 percent).

At 38, Spahn is the youngest candidate, having been elected to Parliament at just 22. He currently serves as the health minister in Merkel‘s government, but has been a strong critic of her centrist views, especially on immigration.

Some party members at last week’s event in Düsseldorf, however, said Spahn got a little ahead of himself in presenting his vision for Germany in 2040.

No matter who is elected Merkel’s successor, her eventual departure will leave a void on both national and international levels.

But all three of the main candidates have vowed to strengthen Germany’s commitments to organizations such as NATO and the European Union.

“We have to acknowledge and discuss with citizens that Germany needs to take on more responsibility,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told NBC News. “One of the questions is, ‘Can we keep a functioning international order?'”

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/annegret-kramp-karrenbauer-wants-be-chancellor-no-mini-merkel-n941546

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An objective observer can fathom why German elections matter for Israel.

 German and Israeli national flags . (photo credit:REUTERS)

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