BERLIN – Germany’s largest political party will choose a new leader on Saturday, with the winner well positioned to succeed Angela Merkel as the next chancellor of Europe’s largest economy.
Regardless of the outcome, it will be a sign of a new chapter for Germany and Europe, where Merkel’s sober but firm leadership has been a constant for the past 15 years. She has earned respect for keeping Europe together through repeated crises and, more recently, for having handled the coronavirus pandemic deftly last year.
“In an sense, an era is ending,” said Herfried Münkler, a political scientist at Berlin’s Humboldt University. “But in certain basic positions, such as the geopolitical situation and economic conditions within the EU, everything remains the same, regardless of who the chancellor is.”
German voters will elect a new government on September 26, and Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union remains the country’s most popular party, according to an Infratest / Dimap poll last week.
Ms. Merkel led the party for 18 years, leaving office in 2018. She was replaced by former heir Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who announced his own departure nearly a year ago due to internal party conflicts. Since then, three men have vied for the leadership position. But no clear favorites emerged.
Although the three candidates seem to have a lot in common – all men, all Roman Catholics, all from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany – each has a divergent view of the future of the party that ruled Germany for 50 years. past 70 years.
Here’s a look at the candidates and where their leadership could take Germany:
Armin Laschet – the centrist
In terms of experience, Mr. Laschet, governor of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, since 2017, has the strongest hand. The only candidate who won an election and served as governor, Laschet, 59, has struggled to generate enthusiasm for his campaign.
He announced his candidacy last February, flanked by Merkel’s Health Minister Jens Spahn, who ranked above the chancellor as Germany’s most popular politician in a poll in late December. Spahn had sought the party’s leadership position in 2018, but this time he promised to support Laschet.
The popularity of Spahn and another man who is not running for party leadership, Bavarian governor Markus Söder, caused top Christian Democratic officials to cut the party leader’s decision on Saturday over who would run for chancellor in the elections. This means that whoever is the leader of the chosen party will not necessarily be the next chancellor.
Spahn’s support for Laschet should garner support from those who saw Mr. Spahn, 40, as a chance to rejuvenate the party. But instead, he shifted the focus to a possible scenario in which the Minister of Health could run for Chancellor while Laschet remains the party’s leader.
Laschet is seen as the candidate most likely to continue Merkel’s centrist style of stable politics. He is a strong supporter of German industry and shares the chancellor’s idea that Germany benefits from diversity and integration.
Firmly pro-European, Mr. Laschet also considers a strong relationship with Russia to be key to Germany’s success, although he sees the United States and NATO as essential to lasting security in Europe.
Friedrich Merz – the conservative
Merz, a former legislator, is seen as the candidate most likely to break with Merkel’s leadership style and return the party to its more traditional conservative identity. At the same time, he had to reassure voters that he would not move “a millimeter” towards the extreme right alternative for Germany.
Merz, 65, has not held political office since 2002, when Merkel pushed him as leader of the Christian Democratic Party’s parliamentary bench. Three years later, he left politics for the private sector, where he accumulated a personal fortune that he minimized in the campaign, portraying himself as an upper middle class instead of a millionaire.
He is the least popular among women, who joined the party under Merkel’s leadership and became an important electoral bloc. Many recall that Merz voted against the criminalization of rape within marriage in 1997, and Anja Karliczek, Germany’s education minister, warned that her tendency to mock controversial issues such as immigration could threaten the party’s cohesion.
But this style is popular with young conservatives and the party’s right flank, which welcomes its criticisms of Merkel’s decision to host nearly 1 million migrants in 2015 and her calls for a return to a stricter fiscal policy.
Defender of strong ties between Europe and the United States, Merz sees a deeply integrated European Union with more skepticism and criticized the recent stimulus and budget package of 1.8 trillion euros, or $ 2.2 trillion, agreed in Brussels , which included issuing joint debt – a far cry from Germany.
Norbert Röttgen – the Black Horse
Röttgen, a former environment minister from Merkel, has been seen as less of a favorite, although he recently had a good share of the polls. It is probably not enough, however, to guarantee him a clear shot at the party leadership. Still, the 55-year-old foreign policy expert can make his way to the top if the dispute reaches a second round between him and Merz.
Mr. Röttgen lost his post as Minister of the Environment in 2012, after a poor performance in the race for governor of North Rhine-Westphalia that year. Since then, he has become a leading foreign policy expert in Parliament and caught many by surprise when he entered the race for party leadership.
Mr. Röttgen gained followers among voters and younger women, pointing to his role in working to transform the German economy into a green energy economy and emphasizing the importance of improving digital infrastructure and knowledge to position the country for the future where you can compete with China or the United States.
Röttgen says he wants to build on the issues of diversity and equality championed by Merkel, ensuring that conservative Christian Democrats remain relevant in the face of rising green popularity, especially among young urban voters. He is in favor of continued European integration and strong ties to Washington, but says that Germany needs to play a stronger role in transatlantic relations.
He many have increased their appeal to party delegates who are eyeing the general elections in the fall with their willingness to cede candidacy for chancellor if it is in the party’s best interest, emphasizing the importance of teamwork over individualism.
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reports.