In late October, the day after the Christian Democratic Union in the state of Hesse suffered double-digit losses, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of the CDU executive council that she would not stand again as candidate to head the CDU at the coming party convention in Hamburg in early December of this year. She later went before the national press and explained that she will step down as party leader—a position she has held for eighteen years—as a first step toward a leadership transition.
Merkel intends to stay on as chancellor until 2021 when her term runs out. “Her decision to give up the party leadership will set in train a battle for the succession and a potential bitter struggle for the soul of the CDU, one of Europe’s most successful political parties,” comments the Financial Times. “Many in the party begrudge how Ms. Merkel brought the CDU to the political center—and want it to return to its conservative roots.”
Merkel conceded that her decision would run counter to her longstanding conviction that both the leadership of the party and the chancellorship should be held together. But considering the present situation, she wanted to give the party enough room to prepare for the time when her term ends. After serving out her fourth term as chancellor, she will not stand for another seat in the Bundestag, nor aspire to any other political position.
Leave a Reply