BERLIN (AP) — A onetime rival of Chancellor Angela Merkel who is running for her party's leadership after a decade-long absence from front-line politics is downplaying potential tensions with the German leader.

Friedrich Merz, 62, is one of three high-profile candidates vying to become leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union. Merkel announced on Monday that she will give up the party's leadership after 18 years in December but plans to remain chancellor.

Merz led the party's parliamentary group when it was in opposition, a job that Merkel pushed him out of in 2002. Many observers struggle to see the pair working well together now.

Merz dismissed such concerns Wednesday, saying: "I am firmly convinced that Angela Merkel and I, under these changed circumstances, will manage and get along with each other."