Merkel’s Successor Needs to Strike Right Tone With Biden and EU Bloomberg 1/17/2021 Arne Delfs
(Bloomberg) The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union is good news for the European Union and those who welcome engagement with China and Russia.
What kind of rapport he strikes with the new U.S. leader remains to be seen.
The 59-year-old state leader from the industrial heartlands endorses the moderate economic and foreign policy course set by Merkel, has a good relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron and shares her vision of a more integrated EU.
Merkel Succession Gets Serious With Vote for Party Leader Bloomberg 1/16/2021 Raymond Colitt and Arne Delfs
(Bloomberg) The race to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor will start to take shape when her party elects a new leader on Saturday.
Unlike orderly transitions of the past, a botched succession has led to a tight three-way race between long-time Merkel antagonist Friedrich Merz, moderate state leader Armin Laschet and Norbert Roettgen, a foreign-policy expert and former cabinet member. The winner will see the Christian Democratic Union through national elections in September.
While the CDU leader usually goes on to be the chancellor candidate for Germany’s conservative bloc, that step isn’t automatic this time. The Bavarian CSU sister party will have an important say in the decision and Markus Soeder, the Christian Social Union’s leader, is well ahead in polls for chancellor preference. Merkel called on her party to avoid infighting ove
Merkel Starting to See Former Troublemaker May Be Chancellor Bloomberg 1/15/2021 Arne Delfs
(Bloomberg) Each Monday morning at the state chancellery in Munich, officials run through the week’s events and cherry-pick the best PR opportunities for Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder.
Whether it’s a technology conference, a highway opening or the ceremonial tapping of a beer keg, Soeder’s people routinely sideline members of his cabinet to burnish their boss’s image, according to people familiar with the process. Such uncompromising ambition has made the 54-year-old former TV journalist the front-runner to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor after September’s German election.