Chaos within the CDU after the Thuringian elections: Kramp-Karrenbauer will not run for chancellor

The CDU chairwoman Kramp-Karrenbauer does not want to be chancellor candidate of the Union. In the summer she wants to give up the party chair. At the Chancellor's request, she will remain Minister of Defense.

CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has decided against running for office as chancellor and will also hand over the party presidency. Kramp-Karrenbauer announced this on Monday in the CDU Presidium, a CDU spokesman in Berlin said.

In the CDU circles it was said that Kramp-Karrenbauer would organize the process for the chancellor candidacy “for the summer”, “further prepare the party for the future” and then give up the party presidency. She will announce further at a press conference after the meetings of the party presidium on Monday. In the presidium, she said that there is an unsettled relationship "from parts of the CDU" with the AfD and the Left Party. She remains "strictly" against cooperation between the CDU and the AfD and the Left Party.

Kramp-Karrenbauer had given up her position as Prime Minister of Saarland at the beginning of 2018, and was elected CDU General Secretary with an excellent result and has since been considered a candidate for Angela Merkel's successor. In December 2018 she had already been elected CDU chairwoman, and in the summer of last year she joined the Merkel cabinet as Minister of Defense after the previous Minister Ursula von der Leyen was elected EU Commission President.

After initially having approval in the party and in the polls, she started to gradually loose a large part of approval. Most recently, she had failed to stop the Thuringian CDU from choosing an FDP candidate as prime minister with the AfD. Thereupon Merkel, who no longer has a formal leadership position in the CDU, intervened in the process, which amounted to disempowering Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Sources:
Die Welt
Frankfurter Allgemeine