Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was voted successor to Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at the party's conference in Hamburg on Friday.
In a razor-thin decision (517-482 votes), the centrist politician received 52 percent of the vote from delegates in a second-round runoff against her main rival, the businessman and traditional conservative Friedrich Merz. The third candidate, Jens Spahn, was eliminated in the first round.
Addressing delegates ahead of the vote, Kramp-Karrenbauer spoke of perceptions that she was a "mini-Merkel," saying: "People consider me a copy, just more of the same, but I can tell you that I stand here as my own person, as myself."
Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was the state premier of Saarland between 2011 and 2018, was Merkel's favored successor. She has served as the CDU's secretary general since February.
Merkel remains Germany's chancellor and can look forward to working with a close ally at the head of her party. But given that German chancellors are almost always party heads,
AKK, as she's known, must now be considered a favorite to succeed Merkel in Germany's top political post as well.
https://www.dw.com/en/annegret-kramp-karrenbauer-voted-successor-to-angela-merkel-as-head-of-christian-democrats/a-46631501
