Merkel’s Successor Needs to Strike Right Tone With Biden and EU Bloomberg 1/17/2021 Arne Delfs
(Bloomberg) The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union is good news for the European Union and those who welcome engagement with China and Russia.
What kind of rapport he strikes with the new U.S. leader remains to be seen.
The 59-year-old state leader from the industrial heartlands endorses the moderate economic and foreign policy course set by Merkel, has a good relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron and shares her vision of a more integrated EU.
How Germany’s Left Party promotes herd immunity
By his own admission, the premier of the state of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow (Left Party), is a professed Christian. As such, he is familiar with the figure of the repentant sinner, of whom it says in the Gospel of Luke that there is “more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance.” Ramelow knows how to use his Bible when it comes to politics. A confession of remorse costs nothing and commits him to nothing. It can, however, prove to be politically useful when you are in it up to your neck.
MONTREAL Former Equality Party (EP) leader Robert Libman’s call last month for the creation of a new “single-issue party” that anglophones “can count on” also speaks indirectly to the unhealthy predicament community members and other minority groups face by not having the comfortable election choices that anglophones in other provinces enjoy. Nevertheless, and with all due respect and affection for Mr. Libman as a community leader, creating a new “single-issue” protest party may be part of the solution in the short term to expressing minority concerns, but over the long haul, a different approach will be needed as the EP’s experience demonstrates.
Meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel s potential successors
Raymond Colitt and Iain Rogers, Bloomberg
Jan. 14, 2021
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German national flags fly at the Reichstag building in Berlin on Oct. 8, 2020.Bloomberg photo by Krisztian Bocsi.
Germany s political future will start to take shape when 1,001 delegates from Angela Merkel s Christian Democratic Union pick a new leader at a virtual congress on Saturday.
The winner of a tight three-way race will be in prime position to run as the conservative bloc s chancellor candidate, but there are two other contenders who might do better with voters. The messy process will set up a tense few months for Germany s strongest political group.