Merkel's protégé wants a new era in Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) who succeeds Angela Merkel, on Wednesday promised a new chapter for Germany in which "people feel at home" after a period political unrest marked by the rise of the far right.

If she manages the CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, would be in pole position to succeed Merkel as Chancellor. But she argues her point as polls show that the Chancellor's centrist cause is losing favor with German voters.

According to polls, Kramp-Karrenbauer, secretary general of the conservative party, is late on businessman Friedrich Merz, 62 years old. Merkel announced last week that she would leave the leadership of the CDU at a party convention in December, marking the end of a 13-year period during which she dominated politics. European.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, considered to be Merkel's heiress, could probably cohabit as party leader with Merkel as chancellor, whom she wishes to retain until the end of the legislature in 2021.

According to a poll by the Bild newspaper on Wednesday, two-thirds of voters want Merkel to step down. For Kramp-Karrenbauer, the challenge is to define one's own profile, distinct from Merkel's, while remaining faithful to the Chancellor.

"It's the end of the time," Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was nicknamed "AKK" after his initials in Berlin, told the press. "We have to thank Angela Merkel for a good deal."

"In my experience, we always stay on the shoulders of her predecessor," she added, stressing the need for political stability in times of uncertainty.

"We need to find a way to make people here feel at home – those who have lived there for a long time and those who have arrived more recently," she added, referring to the upheavals caused by the migrant crisis. in Germany in 2015.

She outlined challenges for prosperity and social cohesion, but did not set specific policy prescriptions.

It may be more difficult for Merkel to remain Chancellor with Merz as head of the CDU, who defeated him in a power struggle in 2002 and has been pursuing a successful career in the business world ever since.

GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIENCE

Kramp-Karrenbauer's advantage over the other two candidates, Merz and Health Minister Jens Spahn, is that she won the election – even in the small western state of Saarland – and held the post of Prime Minister.

She is on the left of the CDU on economic policy, being a strong advocate of the minimum wage. Prior to the 2013 national elections, she suggested that the highest tax rate be raised to 53%.

But she is conservative on social issues, opposing abortion advertising and provoked controversy in 2015 by saying that allowing same-sex marriages could open the door to the same thing. incest and polygamy.

Wanting to "not run an election campaign against others," Kramp-Karrenbauer issued a message of party cohesion and said that if she won the leadership, she would seek to work with Merz and Spahn, who are at the helm. trailed the other two candidates in the polls.

Merz is the chairman of the German BlackRock hedge fund, which prosecutors in Munich carried out a search on Tuesday as part of the largest investigation into a post-war fraud case in Germany, a informant. BlackRock said it fully cooperates with the investigation covering the period 2007-2011.

Merz joined BlackRock in 2016 and condemned the dismemberment of illicit dividends, but his role with the world's largest fund manager could damage his reputation in a socially-driven Germany.

In an election, Merz's right-wing speech may keep some CDU voters away from the German anti-immigration alternative, who has felt the discomfort of some voters over the influx of more than a million asylum seekers since 2015.

Kramp-Karrenbauer is more likely to form a coalition with the rising force of German politics – the Greens, now the second most powerful party.