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Picking Kramp-Karrenbauer as Leader, German Conservatives Choose Continuity Merkel’s Party Picks Successor in Her Image: Wry, Moderate and a Woman
(about 5 hours later)
HAMBURG, Germany — German conservatives opted for continuity rather than change on Friday, electing Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, an ally of Angela Merkel, to succeed Ms. Merkel as their party leader and giving her the inside track on becoming the next chancellor of Germany. HAMBURG, Germany — She is a moderate centrist with a humble leadership style and wry sense of humor. She does not boast. But she has a track record of forging unlikely consensus — and winning elections.
The vote by delegates of the Christian Democratic Union is the first concrete step into the post-Merkel era after her 18 years as leader of Europe’s biggest conservative party and 13 years as chancellor. For many conservatives, it also served as an endorsement of Ms. Merkel’s legacy. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new leader of Germany’s most powerful political party and likely future chancellor, sounds a lot like the current one. That is her greatest strength and her greatest weakness as she prepares to take over from Chancellor Angela Merkel, a towering figure both loved and loathed inside her party and her country.
By choosing Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, a woman whose modest leadership style is reminiscent of the chancellor’s, the party signaled a desire to keep to the centrist, socially conscious course set by Ms. Merkel. As party leader, she is likely to become the Christian Democrats’ candidate for chancellor during the next general election, now scheduled for 2021. Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union announced its new leader on Friday after a closely watched vote by party delegates who chose from a list of three candidates: Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer and two men who had vowed to take the party to the right.
Fighting back tears as she took to the stage after winning a runoff vote, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer briefly thanked the members for their trust. Then, in a gesture demonstrating the team spirit she had pledged to maintain, she invited her two challengers to join her on the stage. At a time when voters elsewhere in Europe and the world are clamoring for radical change and are turning to populist — and often male — leaders promising easy answers to complex global problems, Germany’s biggest party on Friday opted for the opposite: a woman succeeding another woman with a nuanced political program that above all represents continuity and stability.
In her barnstorming speech to delegates before the vote, she repeatedly returned to the need to maintain the cohesiveness and inclusiveness that had kept Germany’s largest political party in power for 50 of the past 70 years. But Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, who was handpicked by Ms. Merkel as a preferred successor this year and has been called “Mini-Merkel” in the German media, will have to strike a careful balance in her effort to unite her party and ultimately her country.
“For me, there is only one Christian Democratic Party and it has to stay that way,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer said to resounding applause, referring to it as a “unicorn” on the European political landscape for its ability to include members from all walks of life. In one sense Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s victory over her two male rivals was an endorsement of Ms. Merkel’s liberal legacy — and a mandate to preserve it.
Friday’s vote increased Ms. Merkel’s chances of maintaining the current coalition government with the center-left Social Democrats, and completing what she says will be her final term in office, though it could also leave the Christian Democrats deeply split. But it was an unusually narrow win. With nearly half the votes backing candidates who were openly critical of Ms. Merkel, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer will have to work hard to differentiate herself from the chancellor — and to emerge from her shadow.
Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s chief rival for party leadership, Friedrich Merz, an outspoken millionaire and former rival of Ms. Merkel’s, had been seen as the candidate who would restore the party’s conservative values and would lure voters back from the far-right party Alternative for Germany. “I have read a lot recently about what I am and who I am: Mini. A copy. Simply ‘more of the same,’” she said Friday in an impassioned appeal. “Delegates, I stand before you as the person I am, the person who life has shaped me to be, and I am proud of that.”
Although he had brought crowds to their feet in regional party congresses as the candidates presented themselves to the party base over the past three weeks, on Friday he appeared unusually nervous and wooden in his delivery. Unlike Ms. Merkel, who grew up in the former East as a Lutheran, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer hails from the West and is a Roman Catholic — as are most members of the Christian Democratic Union. And unlike Ms. Merkel, she has children.
No one won a majority in the first round of voting, with Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister also in the running. Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer defeated Mr. Merz in a runoff, 517 to 482. “I stand here as the mother of three children, who knows firsthand how difficult it can be to combine family and a career,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer said. “I stand here as a former interior minister, as education minister, as social affairs minister, as a governor, someone who over 18 years served her state and the people in her state.”
Afterward, he congratulated his opponent and appealed to conservatives to “throw your full support behind our new party leader.” Mr. Merz, who entered the running in the fall after nearly a decade in finance, was seen by his detractors as divisive for the party, with his more pro-market views. She continued, “In these 18 years I learned what it means to lead, and that leadership depends more on inner strength than on the strength of your voice.”
Armin Laschet, the premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s biggest state said the vote for Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer “shows that there is a great continuity in German politics. There is no fundamental wish to change things.” Her fans see Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, whose unwieldy name is routinely shortened to A.K.K. in the German news media, as having the right mix of liberalism and conservatism to unite a restive party base.
Her policies and life story offer a mix of views with appeal both to voters who like the more modern image Ms. Merkel has given the party and to those who hark back to its more socially conservative Christian roots.
A Roman Catholic who married at 22, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer is the main breadwinner in her family; her husband stopped working to help raise their three sons. But she voiced opposition to same-sex marriage even after Ms. Merkel softened her stance.
Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer had supported Ms. Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome a million migrants to Germany. But she adopted a tougher position in handling the roughly 7,000 refugees who arrived in her tiny home state of Saarland, drawing national attention.
She required unaccompanied minors arriving without documents to undergo medical screenings to help determine their ages, and lobbied for officials in Berlin to deport anyone whose application for asylum had been rejected. Male Muslim refugees who refused to accept food from female volunteers should go hungry, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer said.
“She is able to maintain the Christian Democrats as a centrist party that includes people from different ends of the spectrum,” said Daniel Günther, the governor of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, who voted for her.
On Friday, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who once posed as a cleaning lady during Carnival, joking that she had been “given a shift to clean up” in Berlin, vowed to do just that.
“For me there is no conservative and liberal party, not one that is pro-economy or pro-workers, not one for the East and one for the West,” she said Friday to loud cheers. “For me, there is only the one union, the Christian Democratic Union, that is our family.”
But many of the party’s more conservative and economically pro-market members openly worried about a rift. They had set their hopes on Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s main rival, Friedrich Merz, to change the direction of the party and eventually, the country. An outspoken millionaire and former rival of Ms. Merkel’s, Mr. Merz had promised to restore the party’s conservative values and lure back voters from the far-right party Alternative for Germany. Some delegates told of grass-roots members who had threatened to leave the Christian Democratic Union if Mr. Merz did not win.
Carsten Linnemann, head of the party’s economic association, predicted, “We will now see a split.”
Others worried that Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer simply lacked the political capital needed to bridge divides.
“She won, but it was painfully close,” said Dieter Schröder, a party member, of Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s slim victory of 517 votes over 482 for Mr. Merz.
Ms. Merkel has called herself a longtime “admirer” of Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer. But political analysts argue that seeing her simply as a younger version of Ms. Merkel sells short a woman admired for her own political acumen.
In her home state, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer has led coalitions with various parties, from the free-market Free Democrats to the Social Democrats, before becoming the Christian Democrats’ general secretary earlier this year. As party leader, she is on course to become the party’s candidate for chancellor during the next general election, scheduled for 2021.
There is no guarantee that Ms. Merkel’s fragile governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats will survive that long, but Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s election has made it more likely.
“It shows that there is a great continuity in German politics,” said Armin Laschet, the premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s biggest state. “There is no fundamental wish to change things.”
And, he said, it sends a “strong signal” to women to have another woman succeed Ms. Merkel.And, he said, it sends a “strong signal” to women to have another woman succeed Ms. Merkel.
Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s moderate leadership style carried her from a six-year term as governor of Saarland to her election early this year as the party’s general secretary, the second-ranking position. Praised by party members as a competent, tough politician, she displayed her ability to reach out to the party’s base during her nearly 10 months in that role. Hours earlier, Ms. Merkel gave her final speech as party leader, marking the end of an era. “I wasn’t born as chancellor and party leader,” Ms. Merkel said, as party members in the audience waved signs reading, “Thank you Ms. Chairwoman.”
She also demonstrated an aptitude for working with Ms. Merkel, who stopped short of formally endorsing her but dropped enough hints to make clear that Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer was the chancellor’s preferred candidate. “I am filled with one overwhelming feeling: a sense of gratitude,” Ms. Merkel said. “It was a great joy and a great honor for me.”
As they took turns addressing party delegates on Friday, Mr. Merz appeared unusually dispassionate and wooden, while his opponent delivered a fiery, emotional speech. Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer fought back tears as she took the stage after Friday’s vote, and also thanked the members for their support. Then, in a gesture demonstrative of the team spirit she had pledged to uphold, she invited her two challengers to join her on the stage.
“Today is a special day for me,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer — often referred to by her initials, A.K.K. — said onstage before the packed meeting of delegates in the northern city of Hamburg. Recalling her decision to join the Christian Democrats in 1981, she called on members to have courage. “The question will be whether we are willing to leave our comfort zone and have the courage to do what the people of this country are waiting for,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer said, before ending on an optimistic note: “We can do this. We want this. And we will do this, if that is what you want.”
“The question will be whether we are willing to leave our comfort zone and have the courage to do what the people of this country are waiting for,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer said, citing infrastructure, national and European security, improved education and stable pensions.
During the campaign for party leadership, Mr. Merz, 63, pledged to halve the support for Alternative for Germany, which attracted about one million voters in last year’s inconclusive national election, becoming the third-strongest force and the leading opposition party in Parliament.
That was not enough to persuade the 1,000 party delegates gathered to select the new party leader. Daniel Günther, the governor of Schleswig-Holstein, voted for Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer and had encouraged others to do so.
“She is able to maintain the Christian Democrats as a centrist party that includes people from different ends of the spectrum,” Mr. Günther said. “For me, that means not ignoring any of the various wings, including those for social policy as well as pro-market economic and conservative wings.”
On the campaign trail, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who has sometimes been called “mini-Merkel,” fought to distance herself from the chancellor. She highlighted her service to the party over more than three decades, her Roman Catholic faith and her demonstrated ability to win tough elections.
“In the past weeks, I have read a lot about how I am. Mini. A copy. More of the same,” she told delegates on Friday.
“Today, I stand before you as I am, a mother of three children who knows how hard it can be to combine family and career,” she said. She is a former governor, as well as a former state minister for security, education and social affairs. She is, she said, someone “who spent 18 years learning to lead.”
“There is nothing ‘mini’ about me,” Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer insisted.
In surveys of party members and voters in general, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer consistently drew more support than Mr. Merz. She was seen by many people as more sympathetic, down-to-earth and in touch with voters.
Political analysts had noted that delegates would base their choice not only on the running of the party but also with an eye to the leader’s chances in the next general election.
Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer came out hard in the campaign against Ms. Merkel’s relatively open policy toward refugees. She called for migrants found guilty of attacking women to be extradited immediately, and for a strengthening of detention centers where those applying for asylum are held until their legal status is decided, making it easier to turn back those who are rejected.
After the vote, though, she turned and hugged Ms. Merkel, who hours before had given her final speech to the congress, marking the end of an era. It was a particularly emotional day for many women delegates.
“I wasn’t born as chancellor and party leader,” Ms. Merkel said, as party members waved signs reading “Thank you Ms. Chairwoman” from the audience.
“I am filled with one overwhelming feeling, a sense of gratitude,” Ms. Merkel said. “It was a great joy and a great honor for me.”