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BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel's decision to give up the leadership of her Christian Democrats while staying on the German-speaking market is a risk and an experiment, her protege and would-be successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Wednesday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a presentation of the Hasso Plattner Institute as part of a two-day retreat of the German government in Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany November 14, 2018. Michael Sohn / Pool via REUTERS
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will decide on a conference next month which will succeed Merkel as leader, and whoever wins wins the pole position to become chancellor of Europe's economic powerhouse.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, the party's centralist general secretary, is one of two leading candidates. She is so widely seen that she is dubbed "mini-Merkel".
Merkel had said the party leadership and chancellorship should be held by the same person, until her decision last month to separate the two posts.
"It is a risk, it is an experiment," Kramp-Karrenbauer told a business conference hosted by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "Will it be successful, the coming months will show."
Merkel's awkward coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) has come close to collapsing twice and further infighting in its conservative block.
The chancellor's decision to give up the party leadership highlights her waning authority, the position of the President of the United States.
COMPETING VISIONS
A poll last Friday for ZDF showed 35 percent of CDU supporters backed Kramp-Karrenbauer to lead the party, with 33 percent favoring Friedrich Merz, a businessman and lawyer returning to politics after 10 years in the private sector.
Differences are emerging in their visions for Europe and for dealing with China – he bolder, she more cautious.
"With every wish to take Europe with a German-French nucleus, the proposals must always be with German interests," Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Wednesday, adding that Europe must move towards a banking union, "but first the risks must be minimized so that it is acceptable in German interests as well. "
By contrast, Merz last week made unusually frank comments on currency policy for someone seeking a frontline political position, saying Germany had gotten a lot of help from the euro.
On Wednesday, he told the story of Europe in the future.
Asked if there should be a Chinese investment in Germany, Kramp-Karrenbauer told the business conference the government should "look carefully at which sectors this can be sensitive to, and touch on security aspects – and then decide."
Last week, Merz, describing himself as a "free-trade man," said Berlin's approach to reviewing Chinese acquisitions of German companies was "a second or third best solution.
"… This is something which you have to lift up to a higher level of international agreements."
On the issue of taxation in Germany, both said reforms were needed.
Merkel said on Tuesday it would be counter-productive for her preference in the CDU leadership debate.
Michelle Martin and Madeline Chambers
