The race to replace Merkel is turning nasty

It’s hard to imagine German politics without Angela Merkel, but next year the country’s long-term chancellor will leave office. While some of her advisors have attempted to change her mind, Merkel – who became Germany’s leader when Tony Blair was still Britain’s PM – is determined to say goodbye after the end of her fourth term. But there’s a problem: less than a year before the next election in Germany, Merkel’s Christian Democrats still haven’t found a successor.

Merkel herself initially chose Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the former state premier of Saarland and current minister for defence. But once Kramp-Karrenbauer took over as chairwoman of the Christian Democrats, she stumbled from one public mishap to another and had to relinquish her plans of becoming the next chancellor. A party convention on 4 December was supposed to elect a new chairman who would almost automatically become the frontrunner of the Christian Democrats for the general election.