Merkel launches re-election bid as Party leader

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel was re-elected leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) on Tuesday with strong support, displaying both her overwhelming popularity and party unity that would help her to win next year's general elections.

Merkel, 58, won the support of 97.9 percent of party delegates at the party congress in Hanover and said that she wanted to thank her fellow party members for their trust.

German Chancellor and leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Angela Merkel reacts after her re-election as party leader during the CDU's annual party meeting in Hanover, Dec 4, 2012. Merkel was re-elected leader of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) on Tuesday with a record 97.9 percent of delegate votes, a strong sign that her party is unified behind her ahead of next year's federal election. [Photo/Agencies]

Merkel said the current German government was "the most successful since German reunification" in 1990, since Germany is outperforming other eurozone member states as the economic powerhouse of the common currency bloc in the depth of debt crisis.

She called for stability ahead of next year's federal elections when she will compete for her third term, saying that "it is the German CDU that has the clear direction to steer our country" through stormy waters of economic crisis.

Merkel enjoys favorable chances for an election victory next September although her current junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), is lagging behind in support.

If the FDP fails to reach the 5-percent mark next year in order to remain in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, Merkel has to consider forming coalition with the opposition the Social Democrats (SPD) or the Greens.

Merkel's domestic popularity owes much to sticking to principles in dealing with the eurozone debt crisis, including asking indebted eurozone members to carry out austerity measures and reforms, as well as resisting radical anti-crisis proposals like issuing common eurozone bonds.

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union is currently polling around 40 percent of support, according to a recent survey by the public television network ZDF, 9 percent ahead of the main opposition party SPD.