Merkel’s successor in Germany drops campaign for chancellor

BERLIN — Amid furor over her party’s flirtation with the far right in eastern Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand-picked successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said Monday that she would no longer seek the country’s top position, adding to the political uncertainty in Europe’s most important democracy.

The announcement reinforced a profound sense of malaise and political limbo in Germany at a time when neighboring capitals are impatiently looking to Berlin for leadership in a post-Brexit Europe.

It has also raised uncomfortable questions over the direction that Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union — still Germany’s biggest party but shrinking fast — will take after she leaves power next year.

Monday’s news followed five days of political turmoil, in which the local chapter of the party in the eastern state of Thuringia voted for the same candidate as the far-right Alternative for Germany, prompting a national outcry.

The vote defied Kramp-Karrenbauer, who as party leader had given clear instructions not to collaborate with the Alternative for Germany at any level. It not only exposed the temptation in some ultra-conservative circles of the party to join forces with the far right but also highlighted her lack of authority among her own grassroots.

“The AfD stands against everything that we in the CDU stand for,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said at a news conference announcing her decision not to seek the top office, referring to the acronyms of the Alternative for Germany and her own Christian Democratic Union. “Any form of rapprochement with the AfD weakens the CDU.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer, who will remain defense minister, was chosen as leader of Merkel’s conservative party in December 2018 and had been widely expected to succeed her as chancellor. Her victory at the time, over two male and more...