It acted hapless and was criticized after the Thuringia crisis. Now CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is taking consequences: she is giving up party chairmanship and does not want to become candidate for chancellor of the Union. However, she wants to remain Minister of Defense.
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Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Monday morning in front of the CDU Presidium that she would withdraw from her post as CDU leader.
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The latest developments:
- The CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Monday morning in front of the CDU presidium that she will not run as candidate for chancellor and will hand over the party chair, She wanted “to organize the process of candidacy for the chancellor in the summer, to prepare the party for the future and then to give up the party chair”, CDU circles said. At 1 p.m. she wants to explain herself at a press conference.
Kramp-Karrenbauer told the CDU president on Monday morning that she would not run as candidate for chancellor and would hand over the party presidency. There is “an unsettled relationship between parts of the CDU with AfD and the left”. She herself is strictly against cooperation with the AfD and the left. In addition, it was “obvious to them that the party presidency and chancellorship as well as chancellor candidacy belonged in one hand,” it said. You are therefore not seeking a candidacy for chancellor. Apparently, however, she wants to remain in office until a candidate for chancellor is nominated. According to reports, the CDU Presidium reacted to the announcement with a long silence. None of those present threw his hat in the ring for a possible candidacy, reports the German Press Agency. Kramp-Karrenbauer now wants to organize a selection process so that a new candidate for the party leadership and candidate for chancellor can be found by summer, said her spokesman. According to the “Bild” newspaper, Kramp-Karrenbauer realized on Sunday evening over dinner with her representatives that her backing was waning. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) knew nothing of her decision.
The next federal election in Germany will not be scheduled until autumn 2021. Kramp-Karrenbauer took over the party chairmanship from Chancellor Merkel at the end of 2018. She was elected for two years, a new election of the CDU board is due at the federal party conference at the end of this year. Merkel, who has ruled Germany since 2005, no longer wants to stand in the next federal election. Merkel advocated that Kramp-Karrenbauer remain Minister of Defense. According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, she wants to continue to hold the office. “The Chancellor wholeheartedly supports that Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer remains Minister of Defense,” said Seibert.
Federal Minister of Health and CDU board member Jens Spahn wrote on Twitter: «I have great respect for this unexpected decision. The separation of party leadership and chancellery was a difficult situation. »It was Kramp-Karrenbauer’s merit to have brought the CDU and CSU together again. The cohesion of the party must now be the “guiding principle”. Spahn had applied for the party chairmanship in 2018 together with Kramp-Karrenbauer and Friedrich Merz. CSU chief Markus Söder said on Twitter that he had great respect for the decision – “even if I’m sorry”. He had worked “very trustingly” with the CDU boss. Hans-Georg Massen, Ex-constitutional protection president and CDU member, welcomed the withdrawal. The CDU now needs a chairperson who can solve problems and is not part of the problem.
The former SPD leader and former vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel sees the coalition of CDU, CSU and SPD in danger. “We are witnessing the end of the second major People’s Party in Germany: after the SPD, the CDU is also no longer able to keep the tension within its party,” he told the “Bild” newspaper. The wings of the CDU would drift apart. He is expecting new elections soon. SPD Vice Ralf Stegner wrote on Twitter that it would not be a problem if the CDU now had more conservative leadership. That even serves the competition. If, however, the relationship with the AfD were to be normalized, it would become “extremely dangerous for the Republic”. Green Party leader Katrin Goering-Eckard said similarly and warned against a shift to the right: “The CDU is now hopefully showing that a Christian-democratic party cannot be dragged through the arena by the far-right AfD on the nose ring,” wrote Goering-Eckardt on Twitter. Also left boss Bernd Riexinger sees the Christian Democrats before a directional decision: “Open to the law à la Merz or consistently against legal alliances”.
The AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla described the resignation on Twitter as “consistent”. «The CDU is divided into conservatives who stick to democratic principles and want to cooperate with the AfD. And those sympathizers of a left-green ideology promoted by Merkel, »he wrote. The party was therefore no longer capable of governing.
Kramp-Karrenbauer emerged weakened from the Thuringian crisis. On Thursday, she drove to Erfurt and received a removal from her party colleagues there when she tried to persuade them to vote in new elections. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who acted as party leader anyway, had to accept a further weakening of her authority. Apparently, she did not have the Thuringian state association under control, which last week together with the AfD voted for the FDP politician Kemmerich as prime minister – and thus sparked indignation nationwide. Finally Chancellor Merkel intervened, who was on a trip to Africa. Merkel acted almost as if she was still the chair of the CDU. Kramp-Karrenbauer is hardly able to keep order anymore, said Carsten Schneider, parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group. Lars Klingbeil, general secretary of the Social Democrats, accused her of exacerbating the chaos in Thuringia.
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