Sessions is out as AG

[Deesse23]

Whatchoo got against angela merkel?  

Her days are pretty much numbered now. I highly doubt that she will finish the next 4 year term. Since Germany is a parlamentary democracy, the chancellor can be *dethroned* and a new one elected basically any day. IMO this wont happen tomorrow, but maybe within the next year.

Since Merkel stepped down as party leader (= first sign of resignation as chancellor as well, or at least for not going another term), there will be an election within her party in December. 11 people *applied* for the job as top dog. One of them is particularly worrying. His name: Friedrich Merz.

A short overview of his career and political positions, which maybe, just maybe will ring some bells to you.

Merz lost a power struggle to Merkel in the early 2000s, became a businessman in 2009, is now a multimillionaire and, hold your breath, chairman of supervisory board of the german branch of BlackRock. I guess americans will be already used to the term "conflict of interest."

His political positions and policies in the past were:

• advocated a simple tax system with only 3 brackets
  
• wants to reduce "sozialstaat" = welfare state
  
• promoted increase of age to retire to 70
  
• wants to reduce public education. People should pay for education
  
• emphasiszes *german culture leadership* over muslims and other minorites
  
• promoted various deregulations
  

He is basically a libertarian, however also heavily critcizes Trump and right wing populists.

From wiki:

After Angela Merkel announced her intention to step down as Leader of the CDU party, Merz announced he would run in the subsequent party leadership election in December 2018. His candidacy was promoted by the former CDU chairman and "crown prince" of the Kohl era, Wolfgang Schäuble

Friedrich Merz has focused on economic policy, foreign and security policy and family policy. He has described himself as socially conservative and economically liberal, and is seen as a representative of the conservative and pro-business wings of the CDU. He has been chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke association which promotes German-American understanding and Atlanticism, and is a staunch supporter of the European Union and NATO. In 2018, he described himself as "a truly convinced European, a convinced transatlanticist" and said that "I stand for a cosmopolitan Germany whose roots lie in Christian ethics and the European Enlightenment and whose most important political allies are the democracies of the West. I gladly use this expression again: The democracies of the West." He especially advocates closer relations between Germany and France. Merz has criticized Donald Trump more harshly than Angela Merkel did and has especially criticized Trump's trade war against Europe. In 2018, he co-authored an article in defence of the European project, which among other things called for "an army for Europe."