Gaffe prone? Carnival joke backfires on Merkel protege

By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, drew sharp criticism from her Social Democrat coalition partners on Wednesday for poking fun at trans-gender people in a light-hearted carnival speech. An outcry at the joke among her political foes and some media is the latest setback for Kramp-Karrenbauer, widely seen as the most likely successor to Angela Merkel as chancellor after taking over as conservative CDU leader in December. Critics accuse Kramp-Karrenbauer of cracking a joke at the expense of minorities during Germany's six-day long pre-Lent carnival festivities, traditionally a chance for politicians to lampoon each other, dress up and drink a lot of beer.

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