GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has accepted the surprise resignation of Roland Koch, state governor of Hesse and a senior conservative in her ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Once considered a chancellor in waiting, Mr Koch (52) said he was leaving politics for unspecified personal reasons at the end of August.
With his departure, German politics loses one of its most experienced and polarising figures: to admirers, an unapologetic, straight-talking right-winger; to critics, a cynical operator happy to flirt with xenophobia to win votes.
“Politics is a fascinating part of my life, but it is not my life,” said Mr Koch, who since 1999 has been governor of the state of Hesse, home to Germany’s financial capital, Frankfurt.
At a press conference yesterday, Mr Koch declined to be drawn on his reasons for bringing down the curtain on a political career he began aged just 21.
His departure marks the end of a popular legend in German politics: a pact sworn by a group of young CDU politicians on holidays in South America in 1979.
Members of the so-called “Andes Pact”, which included Mr Koch, promised to assist rather than hinder each other’s political rise. But their pact came to nothing after the CDU’s fundraising scandal blew up a decade ago, damaging former CDU leader Helmut Kohl and his party successor, Wolfgang Schäuble.
The young CDU princes and “Andes Pact” members hesitated, only to be outmanoeuvred for the top job when then CDU general secretary Angela Merkel became the first senior party figure to distance herself from Dr Kohl and Mr Schäuble.
Yesterday Dr Merkel said she accepted her political rival’s resignation “with respect but also with regret”, calling him “a good and friendly adviser” whose advice would be welcome in the future.
Her four-line statement reflected her ambivalent treatment of Mr Koch in the party: though she made him a CDU deputy leader, she declined to recruit him to her cabinet table.
Despite her caution, Dr Merkel had come to rely on Mr Koch to manage the party’s traditional right-wing voters while she worked to broaden the CDU’s appeal by repositioning it in the political centre.
That CDU right wing is increasingly restless at a perceived loss of the party’s conservative profile under Dr Merkel, and Mr Koch’s departure will leave a dangerous vacuum. CDU general secretary Hermann Gröhe alluded to as much, saying the party would miss his “clear political compass”.
Germany’s left-wing parties rejoiced at the departure of the man they had come to hate.
A decade ago, Mr Koch raised hackles with a controversial campaign to block dual citizenship for non-Germans. Two years ago he struck again with a remark that Germany had “too many young criminal foreigners”.
“With his departure goes someone who never shied away from running elections on the backs of prejudices against foreigners or social welfare recipients,” said Green Party co-leader Jürgen Trittin.