The battle for Germany's ruling party that will change Europe

"Any future CDU chancellor will thus start from a position of managing the status quo, preserving what has been achieved, maintaining the crucial relationship with the US, and not risking Germans' support for European integration," Sophia Besch and Christian Odendahl at the Centre for European Reform write in their analysis.

"Europe should not expect a Macronian reform agenda for Europe from Röttgen, nor does it need to fear a chancellor Merz (for his orthodox economic views) or Laschet (for his odd foreign policy ideas)," they added.