A weakened Merkel still gets her way
2018-12-10 10:30:06 source：Politico
December 9, 2018
HAMBURG, Germany — "Typical Merkel."
Angela Merkel used the phrase to poke fun at her own image and have a dig at her critics within Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) at a party congress that chose her favored candidate to replace her as party leader.
The chancellor conjured up the expression to describe some of the reaction to her first congress in charge of the center-right party, 18 years earlier. But it could just as well apply to her last, held on Friday and Saturday in the cavernous halls of Hamburg’s trade fair complex.
The skepticism Merkel faced when she took over as CDU leader — that she is not really a member of their tribe — has persisted among some in the party. A cool, protestant, East German woman with centrist instincts in a party traditionally dominated by hard-charging conservative Catholic men from the west.
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