DPA
The popular female premier of tiny Saarland state is set to take over as secretary general of Angela Merkel's conservative party, sources said Monday, fuelling speculation the chancellor is lining up her potential successor.
Angela Merkel on Monday tapped the popular female premier of Germany's tiny Saarland state to take over as secretary general of her conservative party, fuelling speculation the veteran chancellor is lining up her successor.
At a joint Berlin press conference, Merkel said she was "moved" that close confidante Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 55, would take the reins from her right-hand man Peter Tauber at "a difficult time" for their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The surprise reshuffle comes after Tauber said at the weekend he was stepping down for health reasons, and with Merkel struggling to form a new government after a tricky general election last September.
The chancellor praised Kramp-Karrenbauer, known as AKK, as someone "who has experience and knows her own mind, whose work I have valued for years".
Both women were coy however about whether the move meant Merkel had effectively anointed AKK as her heir apparent. ...
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