Merz Chatter

A couple of months ago, there was an election within the CDU Party (Merkel's crowd) to promote someone to the role of party chief (Merkel was 'releasing this job from her responsibilities).  The thought generally given is that this person will be the Chancellor candidate upon her retirement in 2021 (the next election).  Merkel's chosen person?  AKK, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.  AKK for the record, is generally nicknamed 'mini-Merkel' because they both generally read off the same script. 

The opposing candidate in this little party chief job was Friedrich Merz.  Merz had been progressing up the ladder of the CDU Party up until about ten to twelve years ago.  A number of folks figured that disenchantment over Merkel was going to occur, and Merz was the obvious replacement person.  For the record, Merz is pro-commerce, pro-business, and has probably a different view on the role of Chancellor and where Germany should be going.  I certainly won't suggest that he is Trump-like, but in his mind....most of the answers to Germany's woes involve getting people jobs, and making German products more attractive.  Science and innovation would fill in the rest of the 'holes'.   Merz kinda got pushed out of roles within the party a decade ago, and quietly went off to work in the business world.  I would suggest that within the top 1,000 CDU members (the ones that matter).....Merz probably is seen by one-third to half of them as a very effective solution to the leadership issues existing now. 

So I noticed this morning, Merz came out and predicted the outcome for the second half of the year.  He expects the CDU-CSU-SPD coalition to dissolve after the 3rd state election (it'd wrap up in October).  He wasn't suggesting a FDP-Greens partnership to occur.....he figured a fresh new election.  So in his mind, the CDU would have to decide if AKK moves up, or if he would get nominated for the Chancellor nomination for the party.

It's curious how he worded this.....he bluntly said.....there's no new fresh ideas with this government (referring to the CDU-CSU-SPD coalition). 

How Merz might go in such an election?  The Greens will nominate Robert Habeck who is currently blazing away, and probably the 2nd most popular political figure in Germany at present.  With the youth vote going to the Green Party presently....Merz might be able to pull slightly more votes, but you have to wonder about the coalition outcome (the SPD will absolutely refuse to partner up, and the Greens are very likely to take 25-percent of the vote).  Since the CDU can't partner with the Linke Party or AfD.....then they are pushed into role with the Greens, or go to another election within four months. 

This might turn fairly interesting.