Outlook to 2019: Merkel’s year of decision

The quiet days are soon over – this is especially true for Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The new CDU-Chairman remains only little time for a breather at home in the Saarland, to get air for the big challenges awaiting the new year in Berlin. The Agenda of the “AKK” in the first few weeks of the year is clear: you must consolidate your Power and the direction of the dispute in the party as quickly as possible to pacify. The disappointment of the conservative wing about the Failure of Friedrich Merz in the battle for the party presidency is more large.

Oliver Georgi

editor in the policy.

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For Kramp-Karrenbauer 2019 will depend so much as sent – and how sustainable – you can reconcile the 48 percent Merz-voters from the Congress of the party in Hamburg with her victory. So far, she has resisted the demands of the Merz-trailer, this should play in the government and the party in the future, an important role – most recently with a mocking undertone. In an Interview with “time”, said Kramp-Karrenbauer, they have counted at the last Cabinet Breakfast “through” and found that there is no place to be free. Nevertheless, the pressure of the conservative wing, Merz prominently involve could increase in the coming weeks – and the Position of the new CDU-Chairman of the weaknesses.

fear of a devastating result

for Angela Merkel could be 2019, a pivotal year – and possibly the last of her political career. Because with the European elections and local elections in ten provinces in may and the parliamentary elections in three Eastern German States in the fall several delicate elections will not be the same, the structure of the new power in the CDU, but also the Grand coalition to shake and after the Era of Merkel as the CDU leader with your time as Chancellor in advance could finish. And that has to do only with the CDU, but also with the SPD.

Not a few social Democrats to fear in the European elections and the local elections, a devastating outcome – with possibly far-reaching consequences. In the polls, the SPD was at around 16 percent – more than ten percentage points less than in the election of 2014, when the social Democrats achieved in the European election in Germany to 27.3 percent.