Unlike Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has leaned into the culture wars.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union , attends a carnival event in Stockach, Germany, on Feb. 28. By Griff Witte Griff Witte Europe-focused correspondent with extensive experience in the Middle East and South Asia Email Bio Follow March 7 at 10:26 AM BERLIN – The likely next leader of Germany wants her fellow citizens to do something that outsiders have been urging for centuries: lighten up.
Referencing the city’s hipster café culture, she described a supposed"latte macchiato party," and pointed to “third-gender bathrooms” that, she said, are “for the men who can’t decide if they want to sit or stand when they pee.” "If we're so rigid, as has been the case in the past few days, then a piece of tradition and culture in Germany will be ruined. And we shouldn't allow that," she said in her Ash Wednesday address, an annual chance for politicians to settle scores."Right now, it's as if we're the most uptight people in the world. This cannot go on.”
But the similarities only go so far. Merkel, a technocrat with a doctorate in chemistry, has largely sought to avoid wading into the culture wars during her 14 years as Germany’s chancellor. When the German parliament, the Bundestag, voted to legalize gay marriage in 2017, Merkel sided with the dissenters, but had little to say about the issue.
There may be a cold political calculus behind AKK’s bathroom comment, and her urging of her fellow Germans to lighten up.
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