The German right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would like to see real changes within Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party when she is no longer its leader, but changes will only be possible if Merkel's successor does not continue to implement her policies, AfD leader Alexander Gauland said on Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2018) The German right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would like to see real changes within Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party when she is no longer its leader, but changes will only be possible if Merkel's successor does not continue to implement her policies, AfD leader Alexander Gauland said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, media reported that Merkel would not seek re-election as CDU leader at a party conference in early December, however, she still wanted to remain the country's chancellor.
"We do not know who will come after Merkel and what policy will be continued after Merkel. There are some politicians in the CDU, I have named two [the prime minister of German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin] Lashet and [the prime minister of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel] Guenther if they really follow in Merkel's footsteps, it will be just a change in name. And the situation, in this case, will not change," Gauland told reporters.
According to the AfD leader, his party wanted to see changes within Merkel's CDU because the AfD did not want to remain in opposition forever.
The leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), Christian Lindner, in turn, said that Merkel should resign not just as the CDU leader but as the German chancellor as well.
"Merkel is resigning from the wrong post. Maybe, it will be good for the CDU if a new boss comes, but it would be good for Germany if a new leader took over the government," Lindner told journalists, adding that Merkel's resignation would make the German government less stable and slow down its work.
The reports about Merkel's potential resignation as the CDU leader came amid a significant decline in support for Germany's ruling coalition comprising the CDU, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
Merkel said later that she would leave the chancellor position after 2021.
Moreover, the coalition has recently suffered a hard blow in the parliamentary election in Bavaria, as the CSU, which has traditionally governed the region, obtained only 37 percent of vote, which might be its worst result ever, according to preliminary results. Exit polls carried out after Sunday's election in the state of Hesse, revealed that the CDU and the SPD might have suffered heavy losses in this region as well.
