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BERLIN (Reuters) – Pitching to succeed Angela Merkel as Christian Democrat (CDU) leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer promised on a new chapter for Germany in which "people feel at home here" after a period of political turmoil marked by the rise of the far right.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, addresses Christian Democrats (CDU) in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2018. REUTERS / Fabrizio Bensch
Should she secure the leadership CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, would be in pole position to become chancellor too. She is seen as Merkel's heir, but she makes her case as polls show Germany's long-time leader is in favor of voters.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is the conservative party general secretary, lags businessman Friedrich Merz, 62, in the race, polls show. Merkel said last week she would vacate the CDU leadership at a party congress in December, heralding the end of a 13-year era in which she has dominated European politics.
Kramp-Karrenbauer could probably cohabit as party leader with Merkel as chancellor, which she wants to remain until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021.
Merkel to step down. Merkel to step down. A separate poll for Funke shows up Merz as voters' favorite for chancellor, with 36 percent support. Kramp-Karrenbauer was close behind on 33 percent.
For Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel's Changed to Own Profile Separate from Merkel's, while remaining loyal to the chancellor's legacy.
"This is the end of the era," Kramp-Karrenbauer, "German media nicknamed" AKK "after her initials, told reporters in Berlin. "We have to thank Angela Merkel for a great deal.
"My experience is … that one always stands on the shoulders of one's predecessor," she added, stressing the need for political stability in certain times.
"We need to work out a new way of life," she added, "with reference to the upheaval caused by Germany 's migrant crisis in 2015.
She laid out the challenges of delivering prosperity and social cohesion, without going into detail.
It could prove to Merkel to remain chancellor with Merz as CDU leader, as well as to win a successful business career.
GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE
Kramp-Karrenbauer's Advantage, Merz and Health Minister Jens Spahn, is one of the first and second-highest-ranking states in the Saarland.
She is on the left of the CDU on economic policy, being a strong supporter of the minimum wage. Before the 2013 National Election, it suggests that it be 53 percent.
But she is conservative on social issues, opposing advertising for abortions, and caused controversy in 2015 by saying permitting even-sex marriages could open the door to incest and polygamy.
"Kramp-Karrenbauer," said Kramp-Karrenbauer, "We are in a position of leadership, and we are going to be in a position of leadership."
Merz is chairman of the German arm of the U.S. hedge fund BlackRock, whose Munich offices prosecutors looked on Tuesday as part of Germany's largest post-war fraud investigation, a person with knowledge of the matter said. BlackRock says it is fully cooperating with the investigation covering the period 2007-2011.
Merz joined BlackRock in 2016 and has condemned illicit dividend stripping.
His role at the world's biggest fund manager may sit uncomfortably with some voters in socially-minded Germany, though his right-wing could also draw some CDU voters from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In last year's national election, the anti-immigration has benefited from more than 1 million asylum seekers since 2015.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, meanwhile, looks more likely to be able to form a coalition with the rising force in German politics – the Greens, now the second-strongest party.
Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers, Michelle Martin and Thomas Escritt; editing by John Stonestreet and David Stamp
