GERMANY - The announcement of Angela Merkel's heir apparent, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, saying that she is resigning as her party's head and won't run for the post of chancellor, has stirred up a political storm in Germany. Merkel reacted to the announcement by saying “I greatly regret it.” She suggested that “this wasn’t an easy decision” for Kramp-Karrenbauer, and thanked her fellow party member for agreeing to stay in charge until a new chancellor candidate is selected. The 57-year-old's partial departure — already dubbed the CDU "earthquake" — was met with mixed reaction in Berlin. Dietmar Bartsch, faction chief of the Left Party, went even further, claiming the coalition government made up of CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU and the Social Democrats is about to collapse. "The grand coalition is finished," he argued, because Europe's largest economy "cannot afford a one-and-a-half year stalemate" until the next elections are held in 2021. "The CDU is currently unable to govern. Down with that government," Bartsch said.