Merkel in CRISIS: Chancellor loses favour with OWN PARTY membership
ANGELA Merkel is in crisis as she struggles to form a government and becomes a polarising figure within her own party after dragging it to the left.
The Chancellor’s grip over her ministers and her party membership was once legendary but the atmosphere within the party has been branded "abysmal".
But rank-and-file Christian Democrat (CDU) members are increasingly unsettled as disagreement with Mrs Merkel’s tack to the left and disappointed at September's electoral losses.
Alexander Mitsch, leader of the conservative Values Union within the CDU, told the Financial Times: “The CDU is split. The atmosphere among members is abysmal, the worst it’s been since I joined the party 32 years ago.”
One CDU MP admitted: “She’s become a polarising figure, especially for the right.
Related articles
“Before, no one would have dared to say something rude about her in public - now it’s on the normal spectrum of political opinion within the CDU.
“She definitely has less authority than she used to.”
Mrs Merkel has infuriated her membership by overriding their votes to boost her personal ideology.
In 2016, the CDU annual conference voted to limit some immigrants’ right to dual citizenship but the Chancellor rejected this outright.
Getty
Daniel Hackenjos, head of the Baden-Württemberg branch of CDU business organisation MIT, branded the move “a slap in the face of party democracy”.
He said: “The problem with Frau Merkel is that she’s so dominant that sometimes party democracy falls by the wayside.”
Rank-and-file members in Baden-Württemberg are increasingly frustrated.
The CDU won 34 per cent of the vote there in September, 11 per cent less than in 2013.
Getty
Nationally, it was a huge disappointment for Mrs Merkel as the party lost over one million votes to the right-wing anti-immigration Alternative for Germany.
A local CDU conference in Untermarchtal, Baden-Württemberg, prompted introspection about the need to rethink, while attendees fumed at the party leader.
Walter Haimerl, a florist from a nearby town, said: “The CDU is not just the party of the Chancellor, you know. Why is it always Merkel who sets the course?”
It comes as a Spiegel poll showed the CDU dip below 30 per cent approval as negotiations with the liberal FDP and left-wing Greens fell through.
Mrs Merkel is now set to negotiate with the Social Democrats in the hopes of reforming the “grand coalition” of the previous government.
However there has also been widespread dissatisfaction among the party membership during the partnership with the SPD.
The influence of the left-wing party has forced Mrs Merkel to pragmatically move to the left as she compromises with her coalition partners.
More Germans now see the CDU as a centre-left party, when in reality its membership is profoundly conservative.
The leader of the CDU’s sister party, the CSU, is now facing a leadership coup by right-wingers who see him as too soft on immigration.
However Mrs Merkel is unlikely to face a leadership challenge and will lead Germany’s next government, provided she is able to form one.
Nonetheless, dissatisfaction among the membership combined with poor polling means her grasp on her party is weaker than ever.
