German politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will be elected as the new party chairman of the CDU, the German Christian Democratic party, on December 7, 2018. She succeeds Angela Merkel, who led the party for eighteen years. Through her election as chairman, Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is often referred to in the media by the initials AKK, has a real chance of being elected chancellor in the near future. However, on February 10, 2020, she announced that she would resign from this ambition and step down as party chairman in the summer of 2020. Who is this temporary party chairman with extensive experience in German politics, who is known for her extensive knowledge of files, does not allow herself to be intimidated and makes controversial statements about marriage?
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
German Chancellor and party chairman Angela Merkel announced her departure as leader of the CDU, the German Christian Democratic party, in October 2018. Merkel has led the party for more than eighteen years since April 10, 2000. She has announced that she will no longer be eligible for re-election after her fourth term as Chancellor.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbaue r will be elected new party leader of the CDU on December 7, 2018. She is described as a politician without a big ego, with extensive knowledge of the dossier and as someone who is not intimidated. Due to her election as party leader, Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is often abbreviated as AKK in the German media, has a real chance of being elected Chancellor in the near future. However, fourteen months later, on February 10, 2020, she announced that she would resign from this ambition and step down as party chairman in the summer of 2020. The direct reason for this decision was the political crisis in the state of Thuringia, where the CDU, together with the radical right party AfD and the FPD, elected Thomas Kemmerich of the FPD as Prime Minister. Kemmerich resigned a day later.
Minister of Defence
On July 17, 2019, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was unexpectedly sworn in as Minister of Defense. In this capacity, she is the successor to Ursula von der Leyen, who was chosen by the European Parliament as the new President of the European Commission a day earlier.
Politics in a broad sense
Annegret was born as Annegret Kramp on August 9, 1962 in Völklingen in the state of Saarland. In addition to her native German, she speaks French. Initially, she aspires to a job as a midwife or, like her father, a job in education. She studied law and political science at the universities of Trier and Saarbrücken between 1982 and 1990. At the age of eighteen she became a member of the CDU. She showed her political drive between 1984 and 2000 as a councilor and councilor in her hometown of Püttlingen, Saarland. She has been a member of the Saarland parliament since 1999 and held several ministerial positions in the following years. In 2011 she was elected Prime Minister of the state.
Privately
In 1984 she married Helmut Karrenbauer, at that time working as a mining engineer. In 2018, the couple has three adult children, daughter Laurien and sons Tobias and Julian. Helmut gives up his job for his wife’s career, he takes care of the household and raising the children.
Source: 9EkieraM1, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-3.0)
Double name
The use of the double name Kramp-Karrenbauer is a conscious choice by Annegret. At the time of her marriage, it was not common for the woman to keep her own name, something that has always bothered Annegret. Because her father died shortly before their wedding, she wanted to keep her family name. Husband Helmut has four sisters, so his name was consciously chosen as the surname for their family.
Hobbies
Annegret’s hobbies are sports, dancing, reading and listening to music. Musically, she has a diverse taste, ranging from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to gospel music and from French chansons to rock music by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. During carnival you have a chance to encounter her in a colorful costume and a bright blue wig.
CDU party chairman
Two rounds of voting were required for the election of Kramp-Karrenbauer as party chairman. In the second round she receives 517 of the 999 votes cast by the CDU delegates compared to 482 for her opponent and opposite Friedrich Merz. While Merz is clearly an anti-Merkel politician, Kramp-Karrenbauer is the Mini-Merkel or Merkel-light, as she is described in the media.
Confidant of Angela Merkel
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is known as a confidant of Chancellor Merkel, with whom she has worked for years. With its election as chairman, the CDU has opted for a continuation of Merkel’s policy. Politically, the two women are close to each other, but on the issue of migrants and asylum seekers, Kramp-Karrenbauer takes a harder line than Merkel.
Prime Minister of Saarland and Secretary General CDU
Between 2011 and 2018 she was the first female Prime Minister of Saarland, Germany’s smallest state (about twice the size of our province Utrecht). From February 2018 until the election as party chairman on December 7, 2018, Kramp-Karrenbauer was national secretary general of the CDU, a position for which Merkel personally convinced her. In this position, Kramp-Karrenbauer shows that she can build bridges and avert crises through the experience she has gained in politics.
Political functions
The most notable political positions that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has held are:
- from May 1, 1998 to October 26, 1998: member of the Bundestag, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany
- from September 5, 1999 to March 1, 2018: member of the Diet, the parliament of Saarland
- from May 28, 2011 to October 19, 2018: CDU leader in Saarland
- from August 10, 2011 to February 28, 2018: Prime Minister of Saarland
- from February 26, 2018 to December 7, 2018: national secretary general CDU
- from December 7, 2018: national party chairman CDU
- from July 17, 2019: Minister of Defense
She has also been a minister in Saarland several times, including in the departments of the Interior and Sports (2000-2004), Education (2007-2009), Justice (2011-2012) and Science and Research (2012-2018).
Controversy over the definition of ‘marriage’
On ethical issues, Kramp-Karrenbauer’s opinion is clear; she is not in favor of equating same-sex marriage with traditional marriage. Partly because of this, her support among the Christian branch within the CDU is greater than that of Merkel.
In 2013, she expressed her concern about granting equal adoption rights to same-sex couples. She believes that traditional family values are not at the core of just Germany but of all nations. Two years later, she caused a controversy by stating that if the definition of marriage is amended to include a partnership between two adults, other claims cannot be excluded in the future, such as marriage between relatives, between more than two people or even between human and animal.
Biography: I can, I will and I became
Under the title Ich kann, ich will und ich werede, a biography of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer by Kristina Danz and Eva Quadbeck was published in Germany in October 2018. According to the authors, AKK is much braver than Merkel and dares to take much more risks; she also moves more easily among people; At carnival she dressed up as a cleaning lady and walked through the crowd with a mop, something Merkel would never do.