This is what Angela Merkel says about the AKK withdrawal
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CDU chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will not run as chancellor and will withdraw from the CDU party presidency. Before her meeting with Viktor Orbán, Chancellor Merkel spoke about the decision.
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What is going on in Germany only? In EU circles, many are wondering about the resignation of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as CDU chairwoman. Overall, skepticism prevails over the German role in Europe. Leadership is no longer expected in the foreseeable future.
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Dhe resignation of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) as CDU party leader caught Brussels icy cold. Nobody had been informed beforehand and many are now asking: What is going on in Germany? First the strengthening of the AfD, then the excruciating self-indulgence of the SPD, last week the chaos in the election of the prime minister in Thuringia – and now AKK’s resignation.
“There is astonishment over Germany,” said a high EU diplomat WELT. There are no more constants in German politics. For decades, Germany had been considered “rational” and “stable”: “We now have a fragile Germany in a fragile Europe,” said another diplomat. Overall, skepticism prevails in EU circles about the German role in Europe. Leadership is no longer expected in the foreseeable future.
“What does Germany want in the EU? We don’t know the answer, ”says influential Polish MEP Zdzislaw Krasnodebski (PiS). The decision-making processes were “increasingly determined by France,” says Krasnodebski, who is considered a close confidant of PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. “There is a certain stagnation in Germany,” added the sociology professor.
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The conservative EU parliamentarian Siegfried Muresan from Romania sees it differently. He praised that “the CDU was an anchor of stability in German politics and in the EU”. Under the leadership of former party leader Chancellor Angela Merkel, the CDU had made a significant contribution to overcoming the financial and migration crises. “So far, the effects of domestic developments in Germany on European politics have been zero. The federal government remains fully capable of acting and German Union members continue to play a very strong role in the EU parliament, ”said Muresan. Does it stay that way? Muresan, who is also Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP), only says: “I don’t want to speculate.”
The future role of Chancellor Merkel is also being questioned in the EU. “Will Merkel remain chancellor at all?” Asks a diplomat. He also points out that “everyone in Brussels knows that Ms. Merkel is a discontinued model” and will leave the political stage in a year and a half at the latest.
Permanent hacking in Berlin
A diplomat from an eastern EU country is even clearer: “The Germans have no claim to want to enforce something and they could not at the moment”. There is simply no “clear political leadership”. In addition, because of the constant hacking in the grand coalition in Berlin, the German officials in Brussels often did not even know how to behave when voting – there are often simply no clear positions.
It is agreed that the political quarrels in Germany will further strengthen the position of French President Emmanuel Macron and his influence on Brussels. Macron is currently trying to enforce its claim to leadership even more after Britain’s exit from the EU – developments in Germany favored this claim to leadership.
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Here Kramp-Karrenbauer comments on her withdrawal
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer waives the candidacy for chancellor and wants to give up the CDU chairmanship. You can see the full length of the reason for her withdrawal here.
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However, Macron is striving for a more integrated Europe, the expansion of the transfer union and a clear military claim of the Europeans, which is met with great skepticism in the USA, but also in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. In addition, Macron is not only the secret leader of the Süd group (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy) within the EU, but is now also increasingly looking for new alliances in the East. But who should hold against it from Germany?
The head of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber (CSU), sees AKK’s withdrawal as “a sign of growing instability among the parties in the middle”. Everywhere in Europe “middle-class parties should draw their red line to the right-wing radical tendencies clearly”. AKK recognized that. “I regret their withdrawal,” said Weber, who is also Vice-CSU boss. He added: “Europe is in a phase of growing instability, politics is becoming more serious.”
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