England has had two female leaders. Germany is poised for a second. Even Pakistan and India have had female leaders. In my office, in a DOI department, most despise Hilary, for no logical reason. America will never grow up until it has a female leader.
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Reset and repeat. This is as Conservative as a people and party can be. No flair or imagination required in Germany. It is commonly referred to as ‘Lock Step’ here in the US.
2
This is the last nail in the coffin of the CDU. The CDU will follow the SPD into irrelevance and Germany is left without any centre right party (atleast on the left theres now plenty of choice). I am glad that Adenauer and Erhard are long dead to not have to witness what has become of the CDU under Angela Honecker.
The new German vote will split 20 green/15spd/10 far left/15CDU keeping 50percent on the traditional left and 30-35 AFD with the remainder FDP and CSU. The last hope for Germany is a CSU running nationwide and capturing 30-40 percent of the vote.
1
Can't say I know much about AKK, but I'm glad Merz didn't win. What does it say about your character when you only participate in a political party when they make you leader? Go make money and leave politics alone, Merz.
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Just what Germany needed. Another mini Merkel. Maybe the CDU will eventually just disappear. Hopefully!
2
When will people the world over get rid of their infatuation with millionaires and billionaires as heads of state ? They are the worst of the lot , ruthless and all for themselves . Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer sounds like an excellent choice , with plenty of commonsense .
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No more tightwads please. The economy of all the nations of the world depend on spending wisely but not austerity which never ever has worked in the history of mankind.
3
Congrats A.K.K.! Good to know a woman is going to do a woman's job!
8
Most excellent news. Germany's conservative party (hear, hear) elects another smart and hard-working woman as its leader. Sanity in our topsy-turvey world of late may just prevail after all. Now...may be the Brits decide against Brexit next week after all, and Mueller keeps delivering his goodies here...fingers crossed!
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I am not a German and do not live there - though I have been there several times and have a few friends there.
To me, what was most astonishing was that Ms Merkle has been in the leadership position for 18 years and a Chancellor for 13 years.
I guess they do not have a 22nd Amendment.
If I were a German and truly believed in democracy - that's the first thing I would campaign on.
This lady with such a longeavity - represents what they say about power and corruption. Absolute powers corrupts absolutely. This is not financial corruption - but corruption that she knows best.
When EU at the behest of Germany criticizes some of these so called "nationalist" European governments - they need to look in the mirror.
Get that 22nd amendment in - before another Ms. Merkle rises.
6
@Neil - There are federal elections every four years over here so if we are unhappy with the leadership of our country we can simply vote them out. I do get your point though, a longterm leadership could lead the head of state to feel "beyond the law" and lose touch with the country's needs and wants so that his/her people don't feel represented by him/her anymore. The latter certainly happened in Germany! But come to think of it there actually is one head of state who truly feels that he is somewhat "beyond the law" even though having been in power for a far shorter period of time than Ms. Merkel has: Mr. Donald John Trump.
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@Neil
Had you at "so-called 'nationalist' European governments". Another populist uttering tendentious agenda nonsense, putting the world from its feet to its head. Thanks, but next please.
And let us continue to worry a great bit bit more about the state of democracy in your "preferred" countries, as reasonable people just do.
2
@Neil
I wonder if you would be so quick to criticize a man? But most importantly you offer no basis whatsoever for any so-called corruption on her part. I'd take Merkel as president of the U.S. over Trump any day. Of course, that can never happen but I guess if you want to advise the Germans about their government you might want to hear their advice for us as well.
8
Outstanding - especially with the contagious scourge of racist nationalism infecting other countries - this is excellent news.
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@common sense advocate
How exactly does this ( a decidedly internal German affair) affect you in Connecticut, so that you feel compelled to comment on it?
4
@Waldo By your logic, I might ask you the same question. Why is someone from Canada replying to an American's comment in a US publication? Why are either of us even reading this article, eh?
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@waldo The world is connected, or haven't you heard?
3
At least sanity in this world in some place exist and keeping fresh itself.
Today I saw in TV , Tillerson ( ex sec of State) said that he and Trump doesn't have any common value. An Exxon CEO stating that an alarming moral defect from US President. he didn't say we do not have common ides, he detailed that Trump doesn't have values anykind. Any......................
Congratulations Germany.
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This was a pivotal moment for the CDU, and I'm relieved to see the path they chose. Germany, like much of the world faces daunting challenges in the near future, but with AKK at the helm, instead of falling for populist change, the future looks just a little bit brighter.
31
This are good news.
We need someone who stays in the center and can give voters from a diverse spectrum a political home. We are facing similar problems like any other nations, and the broader choice had been, moving to the fringes and ensuring just half the electorate while infuriating the other half, or go the tedious way to mend the gap. We have chosen the latter.
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It is like Mrs. Merkel is giving Mr. Trump a departing gift - A. Kramp
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Why would that be? I doubt he'd give her more than a 3 out of 10 on this scale...
1
Amazing and excellent that the conservative party in Germany elected again a woman as its leader. In Germany, women in leadership positions are still rare. The parties who now still lack women in meaningful positions are the CSU (bavarian conservatives) and the Liberals - the latter still pretty much present themselves as a boys club these days - with the exception of their secetary general. This is likely one of the reasons why the Greens, with a systematic dual male/female party leadership for many years, have overtaken them recently.
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@Sina From NRW, Germany :-)
I'm a male Green voter (the latter since decades). Last elections (2017) with this uttermost funny question "St. Martin" or "Mutti" was a comedy. I was entirely dissatisfied with the Green party and was, truth, near to elect the comedy party "die Partei".
I was surprised that NYT started to label the Green party (in the context of elections in Bavaria and Hesse) most recently as "liberal" (and no longer "center-left").
I fully agree with you that the permanent dual leadership system of the Green party is part of the explanation why currently Greens seemingly are so high in the polls, the de facto # 2 party of Germany (but not in the Bundestag). It is also the de facto # 1 party among female (and young) voters.
But from my point of view the exchange of the concrete persons within this dual leadership system happening after the 2017 federal elections (i.e. a true renewal process of this party) is the best explanation of the current success of the Green party/Germany. Their (new) names are Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck.
And of course the election of AKK is good news for Baerbock and Habeck. My prognosis: Merkel starting in September 2019 beeing Chancellor in charge. Federal elections in December 2019, Chancellor AKK in January 2020, vice Chancellor ... a female? Thus, Annalena Baerbock ;-)
1
Wonderful news. I am not worried about Germany. A. K.K has the potential to become an even better Chancellor than Merkel. She is a better communicator and could bridge divide in German society.
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@Jb - Nothing could be farther from the truth. With the German economy weakening (the last two business surveys have both been below expectations), the CDU now faces a dangerous showdown with AFD with a leader who will be "Germany's Hillary." Wrong person at the Right moment.
8
@Connecticut Yankee - AKK is not as disputed and controversial as Hillary even was amongst Democrat voters. And she has no scandals in her track record - so the comparison does not really fly.
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@Connecticut Yankee
The german economy weakened ? There's a fly in the ointment. Maybe we will not run a trade surplus of over 8% of the GDP anymore, which is the highest surplus of any industrial nation, even china has just a surplus of 2.3%. Or in absolute numbers, the german trade surplus is bigger than the next two countries combined.
Or we for once will not have a balanced budged, like the last three years. Yes i know, we should invest more in the military, and the expenditures for the refugee crisis does not count, because we are to blame.
But even with an noticeable downturn we are far from having to worry.
And about this dangerous showdown with the AfD, they are at best just 15% of the electorate, and every other party will oppose them, no matter what. If you want to beat this opponent, render him irrelevant.
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