Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (German pronunciation: [ˈanəɡʁeːt ˈkʁamp ˈkaʁənˌbaʊɐ]; née Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2018 to 2021. In February 2020, Kramp-Karrenbauer announced that she would resign her position as CDU leader later in the year and would not put herself forward as a candidate for chancellor for the 2021 federal election. She was succeeded by Armin Laschet at the January 2021 CDU leadership election. Kramp-Karrenbauer previously served as secretary general of the party and as Minister President of Saarland from 2011 to 2018, the first woman to lead the Government of Saarland and fourth woman to head a German state government. Kramp-Karrenbauer is regarded as socially conservative, but on the CDU's left wing in economic policy and has been described as a centrist. She is an active Catholic and has served on the Central Committee of German Catholics. She is the second woman to hold the office of German defence minister. She was succeeded by Christine Lambrecht. In October 2021 she proposed for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia via a First-Strike capability as a deterrence against any "provocation" or aggression. She renounced her Bundestag mandate and retired from politics after the 2021 federal election. Source: Wikipedia (en)