Political Chatter

Ever since the EU election (roughly three weeks ago), there's been this political chatter from journalists in Germany over the likely CDU Party (Merkel's group) candidate for the next election.  Part of this is due to the intriguing idea that an early national election may occur, with some of the elements leading to the public desire for a fresh new face.

What this Chancellor candidate discussion is mostly about?  You have two primary candidates from the CDU that are believed to be in the running.  You also have Robert Habeck from the Green Party who is trending in a major way, and there is some belief that the Greens might be able to pull out an unbelievable one or two point win over the CDU......taking a significant number of votes from the SPD Party.

Habeck is getting weekly invitations to talk shows and chat forums, and he might be as popular as Merkel herself.

The CDU's dilemma?  Presently, AKK (Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer) is the party chief of the CDU and was figured to be the Merkel-approved replacement.  In recent weeks, the party has taken some hits, and there's a belief that AKK can't win in a national election.  The other person discussed is Friedrich Merz....who Merkel was said to be negative about.  Roughly a dozen years ago, Merz was pushed out of responsible jobs while Merkel was Chancellor and he left for the business world.....doing fairly well.  Presently, if you look at internal talks by CDU folks, he's got at least a third of the party membership supporting him.

If the CDU goes with AKK, and loses to the Greens?  There is a scenario where the CDU believes that the Greens would automatically go partner up with the SPD (at a much weaker position) and the Linke Party.  Some talks insist that this will be bringing far-left agenda items to the table, increased taxes, and potentially a recession (not a proven fact). 

If the CDU goes with Merz?  There are a fair number of CDU folks who want a purely center-point driven political agenda, or slightly to the left, and that's not Merz's 'ideals'.  The CDU could lose some normal CDU votes, and potentially lose to the Greens anyway. 

So all of this leading to some division within Merkel's party (the CDU)?  Yes.  Lets be honest.....up until the Merkel era started up....the CDU were a right-of-center party and at least marginally conservative.  Today?  If you are over the age of fifty, you will state the obvious that the CDU isn't the party that your dad voted for, and it's pretty bastardized political situation for them.  While dragging the CDU along to this agenda point, Merkel has permanently damaged the SPD folks because they look almost identical to the CDU in most categories of politics. 

For the remainder of 2019, I think this Merz versus AKK chatter will consume a fair amount of public TV forums.