Politician from the Christian Democratic Union Friedrich Merz definitely has a good chance to replace Angela Merkel as CDU chair, said former German Foreign Ministry Sigmar Gabriel.

According to him, any chair of the CDU can become the next chancellor, DW reported.

Meanwhile, according to a poll conducted by the sociological institute Civey on the order of the Die Welt newspaper, almost half of Germans (49%) believe that Merz will be able to improve the CDU rating.

Earlier, Angela Merkel declared that she would resign as chair of the Christian Democratic Union, but will remain the German Chancellor until the next elections to be held in 2021.

The election of the new CDU chair will be held in early December at the next party congress in Hamburg.