Merkel's Successor: None of the Above?

The German Christian Democrats (CDU) need a new party leader, after Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK for short, failed to fill Angela Merkel's shoes and resigned in February 2020. This next CDU leader has a good chance of becoming the conservative candidate for chancellor in the German elections this autumn. But winning the election is another matter. Merkel's approval rating still stands at a whopping 84 per cent after almost 16 years in power - in part because the pandemic has reaffirmed her image as Europe's foremost crisis manager. No...