Merkel’s protegee, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, threw the party into turmoil in February by saying she would not stand as chancellor in the next federal election.

The leader of Germany’s surging Greens party, a likely coalition partner in any new government, raised the pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives to ditch their balanced budget goal and finance a climate protection plan with new debt.

German politics faces a potentially murky future if it doesn’t sort out the succession of its long-sitting chancellor, writes Leonid Bershidsky.