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The temptation of the past

The German Chancellor announced her decision to no longer candidate for the presidency of the largest party in the coalition. Immediately the question of her succession arose. In the meantime, twelve people have declared their candidacy. Three are favourites.


The first is the secretary general of the party. She left her post of Minister-President of Saarland for this deemed ungrateful position. Many believe that a tacit agreement binds this decision to a future role as party's leader. The journey turns out to be more difficult than expected.


The second is young, conservative and ambitious. These characteristics made of him an opponent to the Chancellor. By offering him a ministerial post, she showed herself magnanimous and certainly tried to contain him. The ambition remained, and his declaration of candidacy was immediate.


The case of the third favourite, without being totally unexpected, is more surprising. He has demonstrated his talent in politics and for more than a decade in the business world. There would be an old dispute with the Chancellor since she took him the presidency of the parliamentary group that she intended to cumulate with the chair of the party.


The surprise lies however elsewhere. It lies in the illusion of the providential candidacy. The illusion that the return of a hero of a glowing past would restore the past glory. At the beginning of the 21st century, the world is changing as it never changed before. The upheavals are global, political, social, demographic, technological, economic and ecological. And the past delivers no answer for the future.


It is perhaps not so surprising that in many countries, young personalities access to the highest political positions. While avoiding any youthism, it may well be that to face these fractures, the audacity to choose leaders carrying a message articulated on the future is a reasonable bet against choices from the past.


The election in the Hesse region shows that the Chancellor's party is largely ahead among voters over 60 years old. It also shows that the voters between 18 and 34 have another preference. The choice that the party will have to make soon, also determining for Germany, could be that between the audacity of the future and the temptation of the past.

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