PremiumGermany: The three men who want to put Angela Merkel's shoes on

António Freitas de Sousa 16 January 2021, 11:00

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is the current leader of the CDU who will be replaced at a virtual congress by Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz or Norbert Röttgen, but what is at stake is the choice of Christian Democrats to try to succeed the chancellor of Germany in September.

If former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (who ruled between 1982 and 1998) secured a place in history as the 'father' of German reunification, the successor ahead of CDU Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel, will be 'canonized' for having made the country to return to the place of engine of Europe - that took over between 1870 and until 1914 (in spite of despique with Great Britain), with the unfortunate interregnum of the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.

The 'Chancellor of the Renaissance', who assumed in late 2018 not to run in 2021 for the post she has held continuously since 2005 (when she replaced Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder), will see the election of a new leader of her party this weekend - after the 'false start' of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer - and candidate for victory in the federal elections scheduled for September 26.

One thing is certain: whoever will replace him will be a man born in North Rhine-Westphalia (from the former Federal Republic of Germany, unlike Merkel, born in the German Democratic Republic). Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen are all from that region, a mere coincidence for sure, that in an atypical virtual congress they represent two lines of continuity and one of semi-rupture with Angela Merkel.

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