Who will succeed Angela Merkel in one of Europe’s most powerful roles?

German chancellor’s CDU party will elect a new leader this week

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for the beginning of the weekly meeting of the German Federal cabinet.
(Image credit: Clemens Bilan/Pool/Getty Images)

Back in the autumn of 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel resigned as leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).

Merkel had held the reins of what The Guardian describes as “Europe’s most successful postwar party” since 2000 before handing over to her successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer - widely known as AKK.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.