BERLIN—Angela Merkel’s handpicked successor as head of Germany’s conservatives has abandoned her ambition to become chancellor and will step down as party leader, according to senior party officials. Ms. Merkel in 2018 carefully engineered her succession and prepared the way for her protégé, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, to become a candidate for chancellor, but the plan was foiled by a series of electoral setbacks, the officials said.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 10, 2020 09:33 UTC