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A potentially divisive debate over the direction of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) threatens to overshadow a party congress which starts on Sunday.
Over the weekend, powerful CDU state premiers, some widely viewed as likely successors to Merkel, held what amounted to a public debate about how reformist the party should be in newspaper interviews.
One year after a surprisingly narrow election win which forced her into a coalition with her Social Democrat rivals, Merkel is struggling to stamp her authority on her party and give it a clear direction.
"The party is undeniably unsettled," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Sunday's Spiegel magazine as congress delegates started to gather in the eastern city of Dresden.
Polls show support for the CDU has slipped to six-year lows and analysts say the CDU poses a bigger challenge to Merkel than dealing with her Social Democrat coalition partners.
Juergen Ruettgers, the influential premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, stoked the debate earlier this month with a proposal, to be voted on at the congress, to give more generous jobless benefits to the elderly unemployed.
His idea has met opposition from some in the party, including Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Guenther Oettinger, who warned the party against veering left.
"The CDU will be successful as a centrist party if it sticks to its guns," Oettinger told Welt am Sonntag. "There is no reason to shift our programme to the left."
Those on the right are worried by deals Merkel has made with the Social Democrats, such as a healthcare reform, which is widely seen as a messy compromise that will achieve little.
But others say the party must soften its image and blame Merkel's decision to run the election campaign on a platform of radical reforms for the CDU's disappointing performance.
Horst Seehofer, deputy head of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said the party should focus more on social justice.
"The CDU must protect the interests of normal people. Social justice is crucial," he told Bild am Sonntag.
Merkel, who will be re-elected as chairman by the congress on Monday, vowed to steer her party along a centrist path.
She told Saturday's Leipziger Volkszeitung a debate about the CDU's direction was necessary and desirable.
"But my job as party leader is to strengthen and represent our direction as a centrist party," she said.

Copyright Reuters, 2006

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