German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) will likely delay the election of a new leader until December due to the coronavirus, current leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
CDU HAS ALREADY CANCELLED A CONGRESS
The party had already cancelled a special congress in April to pick a leader and Kramp-Karrenbauer was quoted by dpa news agency as saying it looked increasingly likely that the decision would not take place until a regular conference in December.
“My impression is that the nearer we get to the summer break with a possible special party conference, the less the need for a conference that will take place just a few weeks before the normal one,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told dpa.
Kramp-Karrenbauer said preparations for the December conference were going ahead. “We hope of course the situation will develop in such a way that we can have the regular party conference in December in Stuttgart,” she said.
Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel’s protege, said in February she would step aside after a scandal over over a regional branch of the CDU breaking a post-war taboo and voting with the far-right to elect a state leader from a third party.