Sputnik: Now that Merkel has announced she will quit as CDU party leader, who could potentially replace her and does this mean that her time as Chancellor will soon come to an end?
Dr. Binoy Kampmark: It all depends on whether she can marshal support within her party in the meantime. There is this question about whether the sharks are circling in terms of whether she will last until 2021 or whether she will in fact leave earlier.
It depends on whether she can shore up support in the interim, but given of course the losses in Bavaria, Hesse and so forth; these indicate that she would have to make sure that any of the dagger wielding opponents of hers within the party can be kept at bay, so there is still a bit of speculation as to how this is going to pan out.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark: There's been a few specific things and I think that one of them is historical staying power and time. This is what happens of course, history has shown and Germany is no exception to the rule that long serving chancellors do eventually start rusting.
It has been said of course that the realisation of the incoming of refugees and also the fact that just could not contain some of these things has played a part; although history will probably show that it was exaggerated when it comes down to it.
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Sputnik: Assuming she also stepped down as chancellor, how could Germany change in the post Merkel Era?
Dr. Binoy Kampmark: It's going to be interesting because Merkel was a very distinct sort of politician. It's been said that she was essentially governing by silence, she was rather careful with her governance, she was very careful with the way she pursued her policies, she was obsessed by background public opinion polling, always waiting for it to be gathered before she made her moves.
We're going to look at probably a very different type of politician and certainly given the fact that the European project is under attack; given that Germany faces challenges broadly with the EU, this is going to be very difficult for her successor.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
