New photo Battle to replace Angela Merkel is underway as delegates begin voting for her successor

Chancellor Angela Merkel's ally has been chosen to replace her as leader of the Christian Democratic Union party, after a runoff vote this afternoon.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said farewell to 18 years as leader of the Christian Democratic Union with a speech and a standing ovation at the party's convention in Hamburg today.

Once the applause had died down, the party immediately began preparations tp elect a successor who could help shape Germany's political direction for the next generation.

Merkel announced in October she would give up the reins in her party, though she plans to remain chancellor until her current term ends in 2021.  However, it is possible that the next election could come earlier.

Princess and the queen: Angela Merkel thanks the CDU following her farewell speech at the party's convention in Hamburg on Friday, flanked by the woman rumoured to replace her, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer,

Three high-profile contenders have spent the last month touring Germany to drum up support. Major German parties have tended to determine their leaders without a contest, and this is the first open competition for the CDU leadership since 1971.

The outcome is hard to predict, and the race is expected to be close. Whoever wins will be favorite to run for chancellor in the next election, though that isn't automatic.

The favorites are CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a Merkel ally who is widely considered the chancellor's preferred successor and is closest to her centrist stance; and Friedrich Merz, a former leader of the party's parliamentary group who stands for a more conservative approach and is seeking a comeback after a decade away from front-line politics.

Both have prominent backers, though many CDU grandees - including the chancellor - have held off publicly endorsing a candidate.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, another Merkel critic, is considered the outsider. At 38, he would represent a generational change. Kramp-Karrenbauer is 56 and Merz 63, only a year younger than the chancellor.

Going, but staying: Merkel announced in October she would give up the reins in her party, though she plans to remain chancellor until her current term ends in 2021

Parting gift: Merkel holds a frame with a baton signed by conductor Kent Nagano and was used by him as he conducted Beethoven's 9th symphony at the Elbphilharmonie venue during the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. Nagano's dedication reads: 'In my greatest reverence for Angela Merkel, the most important conductor of world politics'

I'm off! Merkel waves to the more than 1,000  CDU party delegates at the congress

The choice will be made by 1,001 delegates at a party congress in Hamburg, many of them professional or part-time politicians at federal, regional or local level.

Merkel has been CDU leader since 2000 and chancellor since 2005. She moved her party relentlessly to the center, dropping military conscription, accelerating Germany's exit from nuclear energy, introducing benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children and allowing the introduction of gay marriage.

Most controversially, she allowed large numbers of asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015.

Merkel listed some of those moments and many more in a half-hour farewell speech as leader, telling delegates that 'our CDU today is different from the year 2000, and that is a good thing.' 

She also celebrated Germany's balancing its budget in recent years and its response to the eurozone debt crisis.

For years, Merkel's popularity lifted the CDU and its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union. In the 2013 election, they won 41.5 percent of the vote and only just fell short of an outright parliamentary majority.

The favourites: It is thought Merkel herself prefers CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, but Friedrich Merz, a former leader of the party's parliamentary group, is also in the running to take over

At present, the center-right bloc is polling around or below 30 percent. Merkel's fourth-term governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats has lurched through a series of crises since taking office in March, and the CDU has lost supporters both to the liberal Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Merkel, however, recalled that the CDU was in a deep crisis when she took over in 2000, mired in a party financing scandal surrounding ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

'We are in demanding times today, no doubt about that,' she said. 'But ... we faced an hour of destiny for the Christian Democratic Union 18 years ago.'

'We kept a cool head,' she said. 'We showed everyone.'

Merkel appealed to the party to show unity, noting that arguments in recent years over migration have showed 'where endless arguments lead.'

'I wasn't born as chancellor or as party leader,' she said. 'I have always wanted to do my government and party jobs with dignity, and one day to leave them with dignity.'

'Now it is time to open a new chapter,' Merkel said. She was greeted by a several-minute standing ovation, with some delegates holding up 'Thank you, boss!' placards.

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News Pictures Battle to replace Angela Merkel is underway as delegates begin voting for her successor

You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!

TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st

To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.

Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”

Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”

kim cattrall

Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb

SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.

Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
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