![]() Kramp-Karrenbauer was not mentioned in Merkel’s short speech to the party conference, her last as chancellor. It pointed out that Merkel’s successor as CDU leader in 2018, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who announced her resignation last year, had also stood on a ticket of continuity and keeping the grand coalition with the Social Democrats intact, but that that had also been her undoing. It said Laschet had won support due to his proven experience in government as leader of the most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, where he has held together a broad coalition since winning power there from the Social Democrats in 2017. The conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said Laschet had been “the safe choice” for Germany’s largest party. However, he may yet be forced to include Merz in a new lineup to keep him close to hand and appease his large band of supporters within the party. Laschet also said a cabinet switch was “not on the agenda”. A spokesman for Merkel said that there were no plans to reshuffle the cabinet or replace the current economics minister, Peter Altmaier, a Merkel ally. Just hours after his defeat, Merz, who had been campaigning for the leadership role for a year, requested the post of economics minister. “But the CDU leader must now do justice to the demand for this in the party.” This would also include the need to integrate the disappointed supporters of the rightwing Friedrich Merz, the magazine said. ![]() “Armin Laschet campaigned as a big reconciler,” said news magazine the Spiegel. Political figures in Germany had been quick to connect the Washington riots with German anti coronavirus-lockdown protesters’ attempts last year to unlawfully enter the Reichstag building in Berlin and by extension with the arson attack on the Reichstag in 1933 that was central in the establishment of Nazi Germany.īut German commentators were almost unanimous in their assessment of the weighty challenge Laschet now faces. ![]() He recalled the recent chaotic scenes at the Capitol in Washington DC as a reminder of where divisive leadership could lead. “Polarisation is easy, the poison that is quick to grasp.” In contrast, the CDU he said, “has to speak clearly, but not to polarise”. “No, you don’t need to polarise,” he told the conference. Commentators on Sunday welcomed the centrist Laschet’s emphasis on social cohesion and reconciliation, saying he had frequently been told that the secret to political success was the art of polarisation. ![]()
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