Merkel will not seek re-election as CDU party chair - source

 

FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel listens to Hesse State Prime Minister Volker Bouffier's speech during his election campaign rally for the upcoming state election in Ortenberg, Germany, October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told leaders of her Christian Democrats (CDU) that she will not seek re-election as party chairwoman at a conference in early December, a senior party source said on Monday.

 

Merkel, 64, has been CDU chairwoman since 2000 and giving up the role would start a race within the party to succeed her as chancellor. The euro fell to session lows on the news.

 

German news agency DPA, citing sources, tweeted that Merkel wanted to remain chancellor.

 

Monday's developments come after the CDU came home first but bled support in a vote in the western state of Hesse on Sunday, the second electoral setback in as many weeks for Merkel's conservative alliance.

 

Standing down from the party chair would allow a new CDU chairman or woman to build a profile before the next national election, due in 2021. Merkel's favoured successor is CDU party secretary general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

 

Merkel's weakness at home may limit her capacity to lead in the European Union at a time when the bloc is dealing with Brexit, a budget crisis in Italy and the prospect of populist parties making gains at European parliament elections next May.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-10-29

She is a thinker and a doer. Somewhat rarity in current political climate around the world. 

 

We'll miss her in the future. I just hope Germany is able present new leaders to fit her rather large shoes. 

 

 

Byebye Merkel. We will not miss her. First step on a way which will hopefully end in court.

Edited October 29, 20187 yr by schlog

Looks like she might be gone before December. Plenty of time for Christmas shopping and buy some new running shoes.  

I'll believe it when I see it.  There will be fighting over her replacement so she'll step in to save the party.

17 minutes ago, lungbing said:

I'll believe it when I see it.  There will be fighting over her replacement so she'll step in to save the party.

More chance to save the party if she goes soon. But you may be right, of course.

1 hour ago, oilinki said:

She is a thinker and a doer. Somewhat rarity in current political climate around the world. 

 

We'll miss her in the future. I just hope Germany is able present new leaders to fit her rather large shoes. 

 

 

I sure hope you are being sarcastic. Or do you like her for her BMI and good looks?

22 minutes ago, onlycw said:

I sure hope you are being sarcastic. Or do you like her for her BMI and good looks?

Not being sarcastic and I value people by their intellectual capabilities. 

 

I don't also expect you to like Donald Trump as the way he looks. In this occasion might be wrong thought. 

2 hours ago, schlog said:

Byebye Merkel. We will not miss her. First step on a way which will hopefully end in court.

 

Who are the "We" you pretend to speak for? And, of course, your fantasies about "end in court" are just that - fantasies.

3 hours ago, oilinki said:

She is a thinker and a doer. Somewhat rarity in current political climate around the world. 

 

We'll miss her in the future. I just hope Germany is able present new leaders to fit her rather large shoes. 

 

 

Well said.

5 hours ago, schlog said:

Byebye Merkel. We will not miss her. First step on a way which will hopefully end in court.

In your Fantasy court maybe. 

 

5 hours ago, oilinki said:

She is a thinker and a doer. Somewhat rarity in current political climate around the world. 

 

We'll miss her in the future. I just hope Germany is able present new leaders to fit her rather large shoes. 

There are certainly reasons for which you can like Merkel. But if there is one thing that she definitely is NOT then it’s being “a doer”. Merkel’s politics (and how she kept in power) have always been that of not having an opinion, not doing anything, but kicking the can down the road. She would only act or do in the very last minute when she couldn’t sit things out any longer, and then she would choose the way out that is most pragmatic, least disrupting, and most likely to maintain the status quo and her power. She is a cold power seeker without any principles, visions or ideas. She is not innovating but maintaining. She is not acting, not even reacting, but waiting and seeing. 

 

For this, I have never really liked her as a chancellor. However, in times of political, economical and social turbulence she has been and continues to providing enormous stability, not only for Germany but for

Europe and further. Fortunately, she only decided to not run for the CDU chair anymore, but hopefully will run for chancellor again. I wouldn’t mind a change in leadership at some point, but not at the moment during these crazy times. With all the maniacs running around, whether in the US, in the U.K., Italy, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Saudi-Arabia or Russia, now even Brazil; it is better to have a powerful leader who provides stability and an antipole to all the irrational angry white men. 

Edited October 29, 20187 yr by welovesundaysatspace

Germany's under-fire Merkel plans era-ending exit in 2021

By Andreas Rinke and Paul Carrel

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) top candidate and Hesse State Prime Minister Volker Bouffier attend a news conference following the Hesse state election in Berlin, Germany, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel said that her fourth term as chancellor would be her last and that she would step down as leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), heralding the end of a 13-year era in which she has dominated European politics.

 

Merkel, who has been CDU chairwoman since 2000 and chancellor since 2005, announced the decision after her party suffered its second regional election setback in as many weeks.

 

"I have the firm feeling that today the time has come to open a new chapter," Merkel, looking serious but calm, told reporters in Berlin after a meeting of the CDU's leadership on Monday.

 

Merkel, 64, made the announcement a day after Sunday's vote in the state of Hesse, at which the CDU came first but suffered a slump from the last election there in 2013.

 

Her authority has already been dented this year by the two election setbacks and a close ally losing his role as leader of her conservatives' parliamentary group.

 

Following the CDU's result in Hesse and dissatisfaction with her coalition, she said: "Firstly, at the next CDU party congress in December in Hamburg, I will not put myself forward again as candidate for the CDU chair."

 

"Secondly, this fourth term is my last as German chancellor. At the federal election in 2021, I will not stand," she added.

 

The move sets in motion the process for the CDU to settle on and prepare Merkel's successor. The euro <EUR=> fell briefly and German government bond yields rose on the news.

 

Stepping down as CDU chairwoman further undermines Merkel's authority, as she had previously said the party chair and chancellery should be held by the same person.

 

Merkel has loomed large on the European stage since 2005, helping guide the EU through the euro zone crisis and opening Germany's doors to migrants fleeing war in the Middle East in 2015 - a move that still divides the bloc and Germany.

 

"We are witnessing a continuation of the pattern in place ever since Merkel’s mistakes in the 2015 migration crisis: the gradual but steady erosion of her political power," said Carsten Nickel, managing director at Teneo, a consultancy.

 

"Rather than outright instability in Germany and Europe, it simply means a continuation of the current leadership vacuum."

Monday's news came as a surprise to CDU party officials, who had expected Merkel to seek re-election as chairwoman at a party congress in Hamburg in early December.

 

Merkel is under pressure from her Social Democrat coalition partners to deliver more policy results and the centre-left party could yet pull out of the government at a mid-term review next year.

 

SUCCESSION RACE

The shock move starts the race in the CDU to succeed Merkel and raises questions about whether she can stage-manage a smooth exit. Germany's other leading CDU chancellors, Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, both had messy ends to their time in office.

 

German newspapers said the move marked the end of what many saw as an era in the country's history.

 

By naming the time of her departure, Merkel had made herself "the driver of events, not the person driven," the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper said.

 

"If all goes to plan, Merkel ends her time in office as a historic figure: not just as the first woman in the Chancellery ... but as the first German head of government to leave of her own accord, not by being deposed or in a scandal," it added.

 

Merkel's move will allow a new CDU chairman or chairwoman to build a profile before the next national election and she said CDU party Secretary General Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Health Minister Jens Spahn, one of her leading critics, had announced they would seek the party chair.

 

Party sources said Friedrich Merz, a former parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative alliance, would also run.

 

Armin Laschet, who as conservative premier of the 17 million population state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany's largest, would be a frontrunner in any race, also declined to rule himself out. He said only that the party had to decide on its direction before choosing its new leadership.

 

Merkel's weakness at home may limit her capacity to lead in the European Union at a time when the bloc is dealing with Brexit, a budget crisis in Italy and the prospect of populist parties making gains at European parliament elections next May.

 

When Merkel came into office in 2005, George W. Bush was U.S. president, Jacques Chirac was in the Elysee Palace in Paris and Tony Blair was British prime minister.

 

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr, Thomas Escritt and Matthias Inverardi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Alexander Smith)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-10-30

10 hours ago, Morch said:

 

Who are the "We" you pretend to speak for? And, of course, your fantasies about "end in court" are just that - fantasies.

The future will answer your questions.

 

Sure the chances are not high but why not? Corruption and tax brought many leaders into trouble. She behind bars with VDL would give a nice pic and will serves justice.

13 minutes ago, schlog said:

The future will answer your questions.

 

Sure the chances are not high but why not? Corruption and tax brought many leaders into trouble. She behind bars with VDL would give a nice pic and will serves justice.

 

Fantasize away. Guess the next step would be a conspiracy theory explaining why this fantasy didn't come true.

17 hours ago, oilinki said:

She is a thinker and a doer. Somewhat rarity in current political climate around the world. 

 

We'll miss her in the future. I just hope Germany is able present new leaders to fit her rather large shoes. 

 

 

 

Really. Please list her specific achievements. 

 

She's been a great keep things stable, don't rock the boat, and keep friends with everyone sort of leader which has enabled Germany to avoid too much disruption. And that must've been liked because she kept getting re-elected. But hardly a dynamic doer and thought leader. Her fiasco regarding refugees shows how fickle the world of politics can be when you step out of the norm however well intentioned.