She is Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Angela Merkel’s successor
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After her election as president of the Christian Democratic Union party, Kramp-Karrenbauer is also projected as the successor of Angela Merkel as Chancellor
With a broad political trajectory at the local and regional level, the 56-year-old lawyer and political scientist, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), was chosen on December 7 as the new president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU in German) , the same party to which Chancellor Angela Merkel belongs, of whom AKK is an ally, and is projected as his successor in the next general election.
Leer en español: Ella es Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, la sucesora de Angela Merkel
Barring minimal but decisive aspects, such as his rejection of marriage between same-sex couples, Kramp coincides in many ways with the political and ideological line of Merkel. Added to this, hes career, experience and knowledge generate confidence among the members of the CDU to achieve the consensus that allows to maintain unity within the party, as well as gain the trust and legitimacy of the Germans to win the upcoming elections.
According to what's said, the RT chain indicates that the designation of Kramp-Karrenbauer represents "a certain continuity of the story that Angela Merkel has built for so many years, against the CDU sector that demanded to go to the right. With this part of the party, there are some issues in common, such as hes open rejection of homosexual marriage, although she departs from it in other topics on the social agenda, such as the defense of the minimum wage or the quotas of women to promote equality in society and in the companies".
Before reaching the presidency of the CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer had accumulated a career of more than 18 years holding positions in the regional government of Germany. Of these charges, the most important so far was the one that occupied as president of the Saarland, of the former Federal Germany, from the year 2011 to February of this year, when she was appointed secretary general of the CDU, just by Angela Merkel when she was still exercising the presidency of that party.
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Angela Merkel's bet
"Last February, Merkel elected her as general secretary of the party so that she could work in national politics, which was interpreted as a first gesture with a view to a possible succession. But nobody thought then, and probably not even Merkel herself, that everything was going to go so fast. The electoral debacles of the party have precipitated a succession that was not in the script and for which Kramp has had little time to prepare", says the newspaper El País of Spain.
And it is that the bet of Merkel is not by simple coincidence, because of the trajectory of hes successor includes occupying several regional ministries and, of course, to have been elected president in Saarland, where she defeated Martin Schulz, leader of the social democratic party.
On the other hand, as El País also mentions, Kramp has proved capable of "overcoming profound political crises and of governing in a coalition -tripartite with liberals and greens and a grand coalition with social democrats-", something that "requires a much-needed expertise in times of increasing fragmentation. "
"But at the same time it is true that in her opposition to gay marriage and in her conception of the classical family she has distanced herself from Merkel." Kramp-Karrenbauer is more conservative and has more traditional Catholic social values, according to Kristina Dunz, author of a biography of the politician. "She is more of a fighter and more emotional," she adds, "In immigration matters, for example, she has been clear-cut and asks that asylum seekers who have committed a crime" do not set foot in Germany again"", adds El País.
However, beyond generating division, those minimal differences between Merkel and Kramp can be interpreted as a strategic factor with a view to achieving the consensus that is sought to obtain the victory in the next elections, especially taking IGNORE INTO account that the first thing that must be done to achieve this is to have consensus and unity within the CDU, a mission for which Kramp-Karrenbauer is the most suitable person.
"The Merkel CDU elected its new leader on December 7, in a vote watched closely by the party delegates, who selected three candidates: Kramp-Karrenbauer and two men who had promised to take the party to the right. At a time when voters from the rest of Europe and the world are clamoring for radical change and are turning to populist leaders – often men – who promise easy answers to complex global problems, Germany's biggest party opted on the contrary: a woman who succeeds another woman, with a nuanced political program that, above all, represents continuity and stability, " highlights The New York Times.
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Other decisive feminine leaderships in the world
The one of Merkel and Kramp-Karrenbauer in Germany, is comparable with what Dilma Rousseff in Brazil and Michelle Bachelet in Chile represent. Rousseff, heiress of Lula Da Silva, came to the presidency of Brazil with the support and electoral wealth that the former Brazilian president accumulated at the time, giving continuity to a left-wing political project that split the country's history in two.
On the side of Bachelet, the Chilean socialist leader has been twice president of her country, in the periods 2006 – 2010 and 2014 – 2018, alternating the power with the current president, Sebastián Piñera. Likewise, the former Chilean president has been Executive Director of UN Women and is currently the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
LatinAmerican Post | Samuel Augusto Gallego Suárez
Translated from "Ella es Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, la sucesora de Angela Merkel"
