Television news channel and website Welt said the CDU chairwoman announced the meeting, which will take place from June 2-3, on Monday morning. The shock announcement will fuel speculation Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, who only took over party leadership from Angela Merkel in December, is already looking to implement radical changes to Germany’s political landscape. It is unclear whether the meeting after the European election on May 26 will lead to the early exit of the German Chancellor, who was due to step down in 2021.
But the last unscheduled board meeting called by the CDU was held last autumn after the withdrawal of Mrs Merkel from office as the party chairwoman.
Germany’s already fragile federal Government is coming under increasing pressure as the crucial European elections and simultaneous state elections in Bremen approach.
If the Social Democratic Party (SDP) badly underperforms, they could walk away from the coalition Government running Germany – casting huge doubt over leadership in the country.
This would lead to a premature end to Merkel’s position as Chancellor, as she would not run again in the event of new elections.
The possible formation of a Government without new elections taking place would only come about without Mrs Merkel still in power, since FDP leader Christian Lindner has ruled out voting for her as a Chancellor.
But Welt reported Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer could in this case try to reach a majority with CDU, CSU, FDP and Greens in the Bundestag
Mrs Merkel will make a surprise trip to the US on May 30 – just four days after the crunch European elections – where she will speak to students at Harvard University.
The “commencement speech” promoted by the university as an epoch-making talk could become Merkel’s last major performance on an international stage.
News of Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer surprise announcement comes just a week after the CDU’s popularity dramatically plummeted to below 30 percent, heaping more pressure on Mrs Merkel.
National German publication n-tv undertook a poll of 2,004 people from April 15-19, asking readers their opinions on the party, and only 28 percent said they would vote for them.
It means the CDU’s approval ratings have now slumped below 30 percent for four consecutive weeks.
Before Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as CDU leader in December, the party’s approval rating had been as high as 36 percent.
In a separate poll on the website, just a fifth of Germans said they trusted the Chancellor when it came to dealing with problems in Berlin.
This is four percentage points down when the same question was asked in a poll conducted in January this year.
Earlier this month, Mrs Merkel piled more embarrassment onto Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer by pulling out of a major European election rally at the last minute.
The German Chancellor told Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer at the eleventh hour she would not be attending an event in Munster, western Germany, to mark the opening of the CDU campaign for next month’s European elections, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag has reported.
The new CDU leader had already told her party the German Chancellor would be attending and as a result ordered corresponding security measures be taken.
Mrs Merkel had already told her successor she would not be taking part in any future political campaigning, despite the party facing the crucial European and state Bremen elections.
Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.