Rumors in Germany flourished – Angela Merkel brought everyone back to reality

Along with rejecting rumors of a presidential candidacy, Merkel unexpectedly announced that she will participate in the CDU party conference scheduled to be held in Stuttgart on February 20. As is customary, the former chancellor was invited to the conference by virtue of her position as party chairman in the past, but she chose not to respond to similar invitations for the party conferences held in 2022 and 2024. During the first day of the upcoming conference, the incumbent chancellor, , is expected to be re-elected to the position of party chairman.

Merkel’s participation in the conference arouses great interest in the political arena due to the tense and uncertain relationship between her and Meretz. Merkel has publicly criticized Mertz in the past on several occasions, both when he served as the head of the opposition and after he was elected to the position of chancellor. During the chancellor elections held last year, Merkel was present in the Bundestag, but chose to leave the Mishkan immediately after the failure of the voting round.

It should be noted that so far, in the political history of Germany, it has not happened that a former chancellor moved to hold the position of federal president after the end of his term as prime minister.