Can Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Save Europe?
She’s likely to be Germany’s next chancellor. She just has to step out of Angela Merkel’s shadow.
Kramp-Karrenbauer
Photo illustration: 731; Photographer: Daniel Hofer/laif/Redux
The annual Ash Wednesday political roast in the northern German town of Demmin is classic partisan shtick: Beer flows freely, the aroma of sausage fills the air, and assembled grandees make lame jokes about their rivals. Chancellor Angela Merkel had been a regular at the event for two decades, but this year she skipped it, ceding the headline spot to her handpicked successor as leader of the country’s ruling Christian Democratic Union, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
A slight woman with a pixie haircut, Kramp-Karrenbauer—whose name is routinely shortened to AKK—was elected in December to succeed Merkel at the helm of Germany’s center-right party. While Merkel remains chancellor, this puts AKK in line to take over for the longtime ruler in 2021, when Merkel’s term ends, or sooner if she’s forced out.