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In an interview with POLITICO, Kramp-Karrenbauer sketched out a vision that would mean changing EU competition policy to create "European champion" companies, giving greater weight to industrial policy, and striking a balance between French President Emmanuel Macron's calls for greater EU integration and the more cautious approach of Berlin and other member countries.
"What I see and feel is that the world is reordering itself, that old certainties are falling away. I see the challenge for Europe in setting the standards in this process," said Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was elected in December to succeed Angela Merkel as chair of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), putting her in pole position to also take over from Merkel as German chancellor.
"I'm not entirely sure that we are aware of this challenge and sufficiently prepared for it," said the 56-year-old former premier of Saarland state, whose low-key style inevitably draws comparisons to Merkel, though her profile is more socially conservative.
Turning to May's European Parliament election, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the CDU aims to contribute to a majority of "constructive European forces" in the EU legislature. Alongside the European People's Party, of which the CDU is a key component, she said that majority could include socialists, liberals, Macron's centrist La République En Marche and possibly Greens — but not populists on the right or left. [...]