BERLIN, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Angela Merkel (CDU) has rebuffed calls on Wednesday for her to offer her resignation to the federal parliament after a close confidant of the German chancellor was surprisingly defeated in a contest for the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union (CSU) joint parliamentary faction.
Merkel saw no need to formally request delegates to reiterate their support for her as the head of Germany's federal government, the chancellor's official spokesperson Steffen Seibert told the press.
The comments were made in response to demands by Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner and FDP parliamentary secretary Marco Buschmann for the CDU leader to hold a parliamentary vote on her own future in response to what was seen by some as a further sign of the stateswoman's loosening grip on German politics.
Earlier, Volker Kauder (CDU), the incumbent of 13 years and a long-standing ally of Merkel, was unexpectedly defeated in a contest for the position of CDU/CSU parliamentary faction leader by fellow CDU politician Ralph Brinkhaus. The development was interpreted by parliamentary vice-president Thomas Opperman (SPD) as a "revolt against Merkel", with the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) going as far as to describe the chancellor as a "lame duck" following the vote by delegates.
However, Brinkhaus himself has criticized calls for Merkel to offer her resignation as "nonsense" and vowed to "support her (and) strengthen the government" in his new role. Speaking to the public broadcaster "ZDF", Brinkhaus emphasized that there were no major political differences between him and his predecessor Kauder while insisting that the government would benefit from the personnel reshuffle.
"This is not a big drama. In the midterm this is a strengthening of the government and the (parliamentary) faction)," the 50-year-old said. Brinkhaus further announced that he would seek to forge close ties with German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Andrea Nahles, as the CDU, CSU and SPD all had a mutual interest in the success of the ruling "grand coalition".
As of this November, Merkel will already have held the post of German chancellor for 13 consecutive years. She has hereby recently experienced declining support levels in opinion polls after cabinet clashes with her interior minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) and is widely expected not to stand for elections again following the conclusion of her current legislative term in 2021.
