The race to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming to an end as Armin Laschet has been elected leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel’s party.

During the party’s virtual conference, the premier of North-Rhine Westphalia state triumphed over his two rivals.

For now, it is more than likely that he will succeed Merkel when she retires as Germany’s Chancellor in September, after serving 16 years in office.

Laschet has some big boots to fill. Having served as Germany’s Chancellor since 2005, Merkel has helped shape the German political landscape and Germany’s role in the world. The scale of the challenges that she has faced in office have been substantial. These include the 2008 recession, the 2012 eurozone crisis, the 2015 Greek bailout crisis, Brexit, and the coronavirus.

Big Challenges Ahead for Laschet

Merkel has served four terms in office and the key to her success has been positioning herself as a centrist politician. It is rather telling that she influenced the outcome of the CDU’s virtual conference last weekend, as she provided the North-Rhine Westphalia premier with her tacit backing, which proves that she wants her centrist discourse to continue.

As the new leader of the CDU, Laschet has many problems that he must address immediately. Firstly, it would be in his best interest to ensure that there is stability within the cabinet. Leading conservative and former investment banker Friedrich Merz was the favorite to succeed Merkel, and despite his defeat, he has requested the position of economics minister. Yet a spokesman for the German Chancellor confirmed that there were no plans to replace the current Economic Minister, Peter Altmaier, or to reshuffle the cabinet. But Merz still retains considerable influence over his large band of supporters within the CDU, and it will be impossible not to include him in a new lineup without upsetting party unity.

Maintaining Coalition Unity Could Cause Laschet’s Political Death

Beyond the CDU’s internal unity lies the challenge of maintaining unity within Germany’s coalition government. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who resigned as Merkel’s successor last year, also promised to preserve Germany’s grand coalition with the Social Democrats, but despite her best intentions, she failed to do so. Perhaps Laschet could deliver a breath of fresh air to the coalition government.

But just because Laschet has succeeded the German Chancellor as party leader does not mean that his path to succeed Merkel in that role is guaranteed. Upcoming regional elections in the states of Rheinland-Pfalz and Baden-Württemberg will become Laschet’s first test of popularity since he became CDU leader, and they will determine whether he is capable of then becoming the next German chancellor. If he fails, it is almost guaranteed that Jens Spahn, the Health Minister, and Markus Söder, the state leader of Bavaria and head of the Christian Social Union, the CDU’s sister party, will attempt to throw him out of his current position.

Who Will Be Germany’s Next Chancellor?

Although the coronavirus has damaged Alternative for Deutschland’s (AfD) support in the opinion polls to around 9 percent in the latest survey, they still remain the largest opposition party with 89 seats. The AfD’s fortunes could go two ways and anything could change in Germany’s political landscape this year. They could attract support from voters disillusioned with the economic damage COVID-19 has caused so far. Equally, the party is divided as its co-leader, Jörg Meuthen, attacked the right-wing of the party during the AfD’s convention last November due to its use of the term “corona dictatorship.” Party divisions could make the AfD unattractive in many voters’ eyes and the CDU/CSU could win over a lot of their voters.

September is fast approaching and the way Laschet deals with the obstacles laid before him will determine whether he could become the next German Chancellor by then. But for now, nothing is certain.

L'articolo What are the Challenges Awaiting Merkel’s Successor Armin Laschet? proviene da InsideOver.

Similarities between Germany’s left and the right-wing AfD may seem hard to find, however when it comes to Russia and President Putin, both appear to possess shared ideas and sentiments.

Are the AfD and the Left Really Polar Opposites?

Germany’s right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and The Left are easy to distinguish in daily politics. Both sides make sure of it by slandering one another on an almost daily basis by calling each other “Nazis” and “Communists.” And those are just the friendlier exchanges.

The recent assassination attempt on Aleksej Navalny, however, once again displayed how the contours of German politics are blurred when Russia is involved. The latest example of this was provided by the AfD’s foreign policy spokesman Hansjörg Müller. Asked about the Navalny case and Russia’s involvement he stated that the US could have committed the crime because of Nord Stream 2.

Previously, after the MH17 passenger plane was shot down by a Russian rocket over Ukraine, Müller speculated that, from the American perspective, “the wrong plane crashed in the right place at the right time.” He claimed that a Ukrainian fighter aircraft had shot down the passenger plane for the benefit of America. The pattern of blaming the West without evidence was repeated in his comments on the assassination attempt on Navalny.

Blame the West Whenever Possible

As preposterous these accusations may appear, such tactics are the modus operandi of Germany’s left and have been so for decades – after all, the party is the successor of the GDR’s SED: the Stasi party. Their credo? Defend Russia at all costs and blame the West whenever possible.

The Navalny incident is only the tip of the iceberg. Both parties unanimously defended Russia’s annexation of Crimea and demanded a stop to Europe’s sanctions against Russia. Even the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in London was not condemned. Furthermore, both are on Russia’s side in Syria, too, which includes a negation of the regime’s use of poisonous gas against Syria’s civilian population.

An illiberal understanding of politics often explains the AfD’s affection for Putin’s Russia. The left’s closeness to Russia, on the other hand, is often blamed on the history of the SED. In Eastern socialist biographies, the Soviet empire played a more culturally pleasing role than America, and SED cadres were taught not to anger Moscow. Both parties are the most relevant in the former East German states and they tend to cater to voters that have traditionally had a relationship to Moscow.

Geostrategic Objective: Undermine Germany’s Ties to the West

However, both parties also share a geostrategic goal: undermine Germany’s ties to the West. The AfD seeks to reduce the US’s influence on NATO, while the left seeks to dissolve NATO entirely. Instead, both seek a security alliance with Russia. Müller, for example, advocates in favor of a “transformation” of NATO, a “new security system,” which, naturally, was only “possible with the Russians. ”

Both parties are nonetheless not uncomfortable with their shared ideas and beliefs regarding the Kremlin. The AfD’s leader in the Bundestag and honorary chair Alexander Gauland is not concerned regarding the overlap, and moving away from Russia in order to differentiate oneself from a political opponent is clearly out of the question for both parties. The topic is too important for them and their voters.

However, while the German left remains vastly dependent on East German voters, the AfD still seeks to move the party into a more moderate West German direction.

Whether the proximity to Russia helps the cause can be doubted even though resentment against the US is increasing in Germany. However, skepticism must not be equated with being impervious to facts and reason, particularly regarding Russia’s conduct and meddling in Western affairs. Russia’s malign behavior is not an opinion it’s a fact and it’s reasonable that one expects German political parties on both sides of the aisle to accept reality.

L'articolo The German Left and Right’s Shared Affinity for Russia proviene da InsideOver.

Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded in Berlin in 2013 by long-standing members of the Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU), Alexander Gauland, Konrad Adam, Bernd Lucke and Gerd Robanus. Gauland, a journalist and historian and Adam, a publicist, had become involved in the so-called Berlin Circle of conservative party members concerned by what they saw as Merkel’s leftwards drift and abandonment of conservative ideals.

Gauland recalls in an interview with the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche that the upper echelons of the party had already told him in 2007 that conservatives would be excluded from institutional roles in the CDU at national level and should go and work for their local parties. What proved the breaking point for Gauland, however, was the “shamelessness” with which Merkel reneged on her promise not to bail out Greece during the Euro debt crisis. In an article for the same magazine Adam describes Merkel’s flip-flop as his “road to Damascus moment.”

L'articolo What is the Alternative for Germany (AfD)? proviene da InsideOver.