Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: Moderate to succeed Angela Merkel as leader of Germany's CDU party

AKK saw off Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn in a three-way contest

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will succeed Angela Merkel as the leader of Germany’s main conservative party, it has been announced.

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, known to German political insiders as “AKK”, won a run-off vote of delegates at the CDU party conference on Friday afternoon.

The relative moderate – thought to be the favoured successor of Ms Merkel herself – saw off the pro-business rival of the chancellor Friedrich Merz, and social conservative Jens Spahn.

Ms Merkel has led the Christian Democrats for 18 years and will stay on as the chancellor leading the German government until the next election, scheduled for 2021. She has said she will not stand again.

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer’s ultimate victory was relatively narrow: she beat Mr Merz by 51.8 per cent to 48.2 per cent in a second round run-off.

She however convincingly topped the first round with 45 per cent to Mr Merz’s 39.2 per cent and Mr Spahn’s 15.7 per cent. A total of 1,001 delegates were eligible to vote for the post.

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer is Merkel’s protege and was seen as the candidate favoured by party chiefs.

She was regional governor of the western state of Saarland from 2011 until 2018, including a period when she led a three-way coalition with the Greens and Liberal FDP.

She takes over the CDU as it faces a potential threat from the Greens who have been rising in the polls at the CDU’s expense, and are threatening to knock them into second place.

The party also has to contend with the threat from the AfD, a far-right group that has made political capital out of Ms Merkel’s welcoming policies towards refugees.

“I have read a lot about what I am and who I am: ‘mini’, a copy, simply ‘more of the same’. Dear delegates, I stand before you as I am and as life made me and I am proud of that,” Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a speech to her party’s congress.

Drawing her experience in regional government she told delegates: “I learned what it is to lead – and above all learnt that leadership is more about being strong on the inside than being loud on the outside.”

Ms Merkel, 64, said in October she would wanted to leave as party chief but stay on as chancellor until the end of her term.

She gave one final emotional speech at the Hamburg congress on Friday, fighting back tears and receiving a standing ovation from her colleagues.

“It has been a great pleasure for me, it has been an honour,” the chancellor told delegates.

She hinted at her endorsement for AKK, noting her protege’s electoral success in Saarland and adding:

“In times like these, we will defend our liberal views, our way of life, both at home and abroad.

“The CDU in 2018 must not look back but look forward, with new people ... but with the same values.”

A survey for broadcaster ARD on Thursday had shown 47 per cent of CDU members favouring Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer compared with 37 per cent for Mr Merz and 12 per cent for Mr Spahn.

Mr Merz was a long-term rival of Ms Merkel who left politics for the private sector after falling out with her in the Noughties. He is seen as an economic and social conservative. Mr Sphan is an up-and-coming health minister who has publicly voiced criticisms of Ms Merkel’s liberal refugee policy.