BERLIN - Back in the autumn of 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel resigned as leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).

Her anointed successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, was subsequently forced to resign amid a row over collaboration with the far-right Alternative for Germany party - and only now is the CDU gearing up to choose a new leader at a virtual party congress on Saturday.

German chancellor’s CDU party will elect a new leader this week.

Merkel had held the reins of what The Guardian describes as “Europe’s most successful postwar party” since 2000 before handing over to her successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer - widely known as AKK.

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AKK was forced to resign last February, however, amid a row over the CDU collaborating with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Now, after the leadership battle was delayed by the arrival of Covid in Europe, the CDU is gearing up to choose a new leader at a virtual party congress on Saturday.

As one of Europe’s most powerful economies, Germany is one of the EU’s most influential players. Or as The Economist puts it, “German power in Brussels is the political equivalent of dark matter: invisible, difficult to measure and yet everywhere”.

The CDU, meanwhile, has been the majority party in coalition governments in Germany since 2015, alongside its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), while holding the powerful chancellery - Merkel’s role.

Who wins the party leadership will therefore have “big implications for the European Union, as well as its most powerful member state”, The Guardian says.

The three candidates in the CDU leadership battle are all middle-aged men from the state North-Rhine Westphalia: Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Roettgen.