🔴Big moment for German (+European) politics as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party chooses its next leader. Annegret Kramer-Karrenbauer elected by delegates at CDU party conference in Hamburg. @_A_K_K_ won in a run off with @_friedrichmerz after @jensspahn knocked out [Thread]
As the new leader of the CDU party (replacing Merkel), AKK (as she is known) will now, very probably, take over from Merkel as chancellor when she steps down. Merkel not due to step down until end of current term - Autumn 2021 /2
AKK is Merkel’s protégé. Her selection by the CDU reflects a desire by them of a form of Merkel-like continuity. The 56-year-old former governor of the western German state of Saarland is a centrist; moderate and has been compared to Merkel through her career. /3
AKK & Merkel are close allies. AKK’s success means that it’s likely Merkel will be able to leave office on her own terms sometime before 2021 after an extraordinary term of 14+ years as chancellor. /4 
Had Merz won, Merkel would have been more vulnerable. She’d have found it harder to work with Merz. The two are old rivals, clashing a decade ago when she outmanoeuvred him. He left politics for the finance world and hoped this was his political comeback. /5
Merz’s vision for Germany was, within the centre-right parameters of the CDU, very different from AKKs. With his much more conservative outlook, he’d hoped to lure back voters who’ve turned further to the right - to the AfD. /6
AKK will likely maintain Merkel’s centrist course which will mean she’s unlikely to pull back many voters who’ve deserted the CDU and gone further right to the AfD. But she’ll be more attractive to Social Democrat & Green voters than Merz would have been. /7
And the mandatory trivia: she’s married with three sons, has a husband called Helmut and is a massive @acdc fan. /8
The baton has been handed over. /9
(And yes - thanks to @jonworth & @APHClarkson - thanks chaps 😉 - I am aware that I typoed Kramp-Karrenbauer’s name in first tweet)
