Potential successor of Germany's Merkel resists right-leaning politics

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the designated new secretary general of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), rejected calls to shift her party's position further to the right-wing spectrum of politics, German media reported on Friday.

Speaking to German publication Spiegel, Kramp-Karrenbauer said she was "in strict opposition" to such a move and questioned the accuracy of related claims that the CDU was neglecting its conservative roots.

The conservative wing of the CDU surrounding the parliamentarian Wolfgang Bosbach has vocally criticized a perceived shift to the left of the party spectrum on key issues such as the cancellation of mandatory national service and same-sex marriage.

Members of this so-called "Berlin circle" have warned the CDU would fail to contain the electoral threat posed by the far-right Alternative for Germany unless it maintained a staunchly conservative profile.

However, the news of Kramp-Karrenbauer's nomination as secretary-general has provoked media speculation that the party is now more likely to continue down its centrist path of recent years. Kramp-Karrenbauer, aged 55, has long been tipped as a potential successor to German Chancellor and CDU leader Angela Merkel.

Kramp-Karrenbauer told Spiegel the CDU was a party which has traditionally accommodated a diversity of confessional and ideological positions. Nevertheless, she also announced her desire to strengthen the role of the party against the federal government, even if it led to conflict with her close ally Merkel.

There would certainly be positions where the CDU leader and the party secretary had "different opinions", Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

Following an arduous and still incomplete process of government formation which began after national elections in September 2017, Merkel has reacted to internal criticism of the recent coalition agreement between the CDU, Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) by making a promise of party renewal.

The CDU leadership is scheduled to begin formulating a new basic manifesto at a party conference on Monday, starting with proposals for far-reaching reforms of Germany's current system of social market economy.

A first draft cited by media on Friday described the social market economy as having constituted the foundation for Germany's prosperity after World War II by combining "market dynamism with social balance".

As a consequence, policymakers faced the urgent task of ensuring the system was adapted in order to weather the macro-structural changes of globalization, digitalization, demographic challenges and a new geo-political landscape.