By IRNA,
Berlin : German Chancellor Angela Merkel is further consolidating her own power base in the aftermath of the latest exodus of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leaders.
While the nation’s media have focused a great deal on the departure of six prominent CDU prime ministers, almost all of whom were at times involved in a power struggle with Merkel, the chancellor has tried to down play the resignation of the CDU leaders, saying it was part of routine personnel changes at the top of the party.
Speaking at her annual summer press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, Merkel argued these personnel changes were normal and took place for different reasons.
She said the new party leaders had to be given “a chance” to prove themselves.
The latest wave of resignations in the CDU come in the wake of a record low approval rating for Merkel’s center-right government coalition.
If a general election were held today, Merkel’s coalition of Christian Democrats, Bavaria’s Christian Social Union and Free Democrats (FDP) would only gain 34 percent of the vote which is the lowest number recorded for the three parties since polling started back in 1986.
The poll comes after Merkel has been confronted with a series of setbacks and high profile resignations in recent months, including that of the German president – followed by a presidential election in which her CDU candidate struggled to get a majority.
While Merkel has lost key conservative leaders in Thuringia, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, where the CDU’s failure to maintain power in May’s election cost Merkel her majority in parliament’s upper house, the chancellor has moved discretly and skillfully to install her proteges in the upper echelon of the party.
The new generation of CDU heads include Family Minister Kristina Schroeder, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, CDU foreign policy spokesman Philipp Missfelder and the prime ministers of Lower Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg David McAllister and Stefan Mappus.
This new group will be joined by two of the “older” CDU top guards, Education Minister Annette Schavan and Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom are regarded as very close allies of Merkel.
Yet these new CDU leaders have to find their place in the party whose rank-and-file feels deeply frustrated over the course of the Merkel’s policies.
Political analysts point out that Merkel will eventually feel the void that the departure of the ex-CDU party leaders has caused since many of them were representing key segments of the CDU, including the conservative, the pro-labor and pro-business wings, all of whom have been highly critical of Merkel’s government policies.
Critics of the chancellor argue that Merkel is not tolerating any major dissent in her party since she is very conscious of her power, something which she learned from ex-German chancellor Helmut Kohl.
In fact, she is relying mostly on the advice of two key people in her inner power circle, dubbed also the ‘girl-camp’: her media consultant Eva Christiansen and her bureau chief Beate Baumann.