Is there life after Merkel for German conservatives?

German conservatives are in disarray. Caught between the migrant crisis and Merkel’s looming departure, they are fighting over their own political future.

On the surface, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their smaller sister-party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), argue over whether German police forces should be allowed to reject certain asylum seekers at the border. But the actual conflict runs deeper: it is not simply about whether or not to reject a few thousands refugees at the border; this is about the very future of German conservative politics.

Merkel has now led German conservatives for thirteen years. And although she has brought them continuous electoral success during that period, her style of governance has left the grouping increasingly divided, as has her decision to tack to the centre on many issues. She has gradually steered the CDU onto a path of moderate conservatism, if not outright centrism. Her policy decisions, even where contentious within her own party, were often declared as “without any alternative.”