BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel has told members of her Christian Democrats (CDU) she wanted to serve her full term as German chancellor until 2021, several people told Reuters on Monday.

Merkel also said she would not seek reelection as chancellor or as a conservative lawmaker in the Bundestag parliament after her term ends, party sources said. </s> BERLIN, Oct 30 — Angela Merkel yesterday announced she will quit as German chancellor when her mandate ends in 2021, as she sought to curtail a series of political crises that have rocked her fragile coalition.

Often described as the world’s most powerful woman and Europe’s de facto leader, Merkel said she hoped her planned departure would end fighting within her coalition and allow it to focus on governing.

“Today, it is time to begin a new chapter,” she told reporters at her party headquarters.

Referring to detrimental coalition quibbling, Merkel noted that “the picture that the government is sending out is unacceptable.”

Electoral drubbings like the one on Sunday in the western state of Hesse were “a watershed, but in them could lie a chance” for Germany’s mainstream political parties including her own to find a way forward, she said.

The 64-year-old chancellor will stagger her political exit by first giving up the leadership of her Christian Democratic Union after 18 years, when the position comes up for reelection in December.

Merkel, who has led Germany for 13 years, said that she would neither stand in the country’s next elections nor seek to renew her mandate as chancellor when her fourth term ends in 2021.

At least four candidates declared their interest in Merkel’s job after she made her stunning announcement.

But she named no successor.

“I will accept any democratic decision taken by my party,” she said.

Merkel has long held the support of Germans as a guarantor of stability and prosperity, having steered Germany through financial crises and kept Europe’s biggest economy humming, with unemployment striking post-reunification record lows month after month.

But her power began to wane in 2015 after she decided to keep Germany’s borders open at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, ultimately allowing in more than one million asylum seekers.

The mass arrivals left Germany deeply polarised and fuelled the rise of the far-right, essentially redrawing the country’s political landscape.

Railing against the newcomers, the anti-immigrant AfD is now the biggest opposition party in the Bundestag, and after a strong showing in Hesse now has seats in all German state parliaments.

Anxious to stem the haemorrhage of voters to the AfD, Merkel’s conservative Bavarian allies CSU had championed hardline immigration and openly attacked her, all of which ended up alienating moderate voters.

The CSU’s strategy also sat poorly with the third party in Merkel’s uneasy coalition, the Social Democrats, which sent the government lurching from crisis to crisis.

AfD leader Joerg Meuthen hailed Merkel’s planned departure as “good news”, as the party took credit for the earthquake in German politics.

The daily Sueddeutsche Seitung praised Merkel for her decision, saying the leader who has always been “sober, to the point of being cold” with the political careers of others, has “stayed true to herself”.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has a good working relationship with Merkel, hailed her “extremely dignified” decision.

Several key CDU figures now hope to succeed her, including party general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and ambitious health minister Jens Spahn, a frequent Merkel critic.

And Merkel, dubbed the “eternal chancellor”, might not get to choose her own timetable for stepping down, as her departure could be hastened if the SPD brings down the government before 2021.

Following Sunday’s hammering at the polls in Hesse, the second consecutive drubbing after a vote in Bavaria two weeks ago, SPD chief Andrea Nahles warned that her party might pull the plug.

Nahles nonetheless voiced respect for Merkel’s decision, saying the veteran leader has done “an extraordinary service” to the CDU.

The question now is whether by offering herself up as a lightning rod, Merkel will deflect the disapproval that sent voters towards other parties.

Merkel’s first step towards the exit will certainly be felt across the European Union, where she has been an unflappable bulwark against global crises, Brexit and an unpredictable ally in the United States.

Despite her global standing, Merkel said she has no plans to seek a post in the European Commission after bowing out of German politics, quashing speculation to that effect in Brussels. — AFP </s> BERLIN, Oct 29 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told leaders of her Christian Democrats (CDU) that she will not seek re-election as party chairwoman at a conference in early December, a senior party source said.

Merkel has been CDU chairwoman since 2000 and giving up the role would start a race within the party to succeed her as chancellor. — Reuters </s> German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her conservative party on Monday that she's ready to step down as party leader following a pair of state election debacles, but plans to stay on as chancellor for the rest of her government's term, German media reported.

Merkel also reportedly said that she won't seek re-election to parliament after its current term ends, indicating that this will be her final term as chancellor — something that had been widely assumed but that Merkel has not until now confirmed.

Merkel, 64, had previously indicated that she planned to seek another two-year term as leader of her conservative Christian Democratic Union at a December party congress, but appeared to be moving quickly to acknowledge pressure for change as her fourth-term government struggles to gain traction.

Merkel has led the CDU since 2000 and has been Germany's chancellor since 2005. There is no single obvious successor, but several potential contenders.

The current parliamentary term is due to expire in 2021, and the dpa news agency reported that Merkel said she won't seek re-election.

She currently governs Germany in a "grand coalition" of what traditionally have been the country's biggest parties — the CDU, Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union, and the center-left Social Democrats. Her fourth-term government took office only in March but has become notorious for squabbling.

An election Sunday in the central state of Hesse saw both the CDU and the Social Democrats lose significant ground amid gains for both the Green party and the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Merkel's party managed an unimpressive win, narrowly salvaging a majority for its regional governing coalition with the Greens in Hesse.

The debacle followed a battering in a state election in Bavaria two weeks ago for the CSU and the Social Democrats.

Citing unidentified party sources, dpa reported that Merkel told an ongoing CDU leadership meeting Monday that she's prepared to step down as party leader but intends to remain chancellor. The mass-circulation daily Bild also reported that she said she won't run again as party leader.

That's a major concession for Merkel, who for years has insisted that the chancellor should also be party leader. But there is precedent for splitting the two jobs.

Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of his center-left Social Democrats in 2004 as his government struggled, but remained chancellor until he narrowly lost an election 18 months later. Helmut Schmidt, West Germany's chancellor from 1974 to 1982, never led the Social Democrats.

"The CDU faces a turning point," Mike Mohring, a regional party leader from eastern Germany, told Welt television. "Angela Merkel knows best what to do, and now she has decided. And that demands respect."

He said that it's important to avoid "long personnel debates" and restore people's confidence in the CDU as a governing party.

Merkel has dragged the CDU to the political center in her years as leader, dropping military conscription, introducing benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children, and abruptly accelerating the shutdown of Germany's nuclear power plants following Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011.

She allowed large numbers of asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015, many fleeing the fighting in Syria, declaring that "we will manage it," before gradually pivoting to a more restrictive approach. That decision has led to lasting tensions in her conservative Union bloc, particularly with the CDU's Bavaria-only sister party, the CSU, and helped the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party gain support.

The Social Democrats' leader, Andrea Nahles, on Sunday demanded a "clear, binding timetable" for implementing government projects before the federal coalition faces an already-agreed upon midterm review next fall.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her conservative party on Monday that she’s ready to step down as party leader following a pair of state election debacles, but plans to stay on as chancellor for the rest of her government’s term, German media reported.

Merkel also reportedly said that she won’t seek re-election to parliament after its current term ends, indicating that this will be her final term as chancellor — something that had been widely assumed but that Merkel has not until now confirmed.

Merkel, 64, had previously indicated that she planned to seek another two-year term as leader of her conservative Christian Democratic Union at a December party congress, but appeared to be moving quickly to acknowledge pressure for change as her fourth-term government struggles to gain traction.

Merkel has led the CDU since 2000 and has been Germany’s chancellor since 2005. There is no single obvious successor, but several potential contenders.

The current parliamentary term is due to expire in 2021, and the dpa news agency reported that Merkel said she won’t seek re-election.

She currently governs Germany in a “grand coalition” of what traditionally have been the country’s biggest parties — the CDU, Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union, and the center-left Social Democrats. Her fourth-term government took office only in March but has become notorious for squabbling.

An election Sunday in the central state of Hesse saw both the CDU and the Social Democrats lose significant ground amid gains for both the Green party and the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Merkel’s party managed an unimpressive win, narrowly salvaging a majority for its regional governing coalition with the Greens in Hesse.

The debacle followed a battering in a state election in Bavaria two weeks ago for the CSU and the Social Democrats.

Citing unidentified party sources, dpa reported that Merkel told an ongoing CDU leadership meeting Monday that she’s prepared to step down as party leader but intends to remain chancellor. The mass-circulation daily Bild also reported that she said she won’t run again as party leader.

That’s a major concession for Merkel, who for years has insisted that the chancellor should also be party leader. But there is precedent for splitting the two jobs.

Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of his center-left Social Democrats in 2004 as his government struggled, but remained chancellor until he narrowly lost an election 18 months later. Helmut Schmidt, West Germany’s chancellor from 1974 to 1982, never led the Social Democrats.

“The CDU faces a turning point,” Mike Mohring, a regional party leader from eastern Germany, told Welt television. “Angela Merkel knows best what to do, and now she has decided. And that demands respect.”

He said that it’s important to avoid “long personnel debates” and restore people’s confidence in the CDU as a governing party.

Merkel has dragged the CDU to the political center in her years as leader, dropping military conscription, introducing benefits encouraging fathers to look after their young children, and abruptly accelerating the shutdown of Germany’s nuclear power plants following Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011.

She allowed large numbers of asylum-seekers into Germany in 2015, many fleeing the fighting in Syria, declaring that “we will manage it,” before gradually pivoting to a more restrictive approach. That decision has led to lasting tensions in her conservative Union bloc, particularly with the CDU’s Bavaria-only sister party, the CSU, and helped the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party gain support.

The Social Democrats’ leader, Andrea Nahles, on Sunday demanded a “clear, binding timetable” for implementing government projects before the federal coalition faces an already-agreed upon midterm review next fall. </s> BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Angela Merkel says this will be her final term as chancellor, she won’t run in 2021. </s> Angela Merkel told her conservative party on Monday that she intends to step down as its leader but remain Germany’s chancellor following a pair of state election debacles, German media reported.

Merkel had previously indicated that she planned to seek another two-year term as leader of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at a party congress in December, but appeared to be moving quickly to acknowledge pressure for renewal.

Merkel has led the CDU since 2000 and has been Germany’s chancellor since 2005.

News agency cited unidentified party sources as saying Merkel told an ongoing CDU leadership meeting that she is prepared to step down as party leader but intends to remain chancellor. The mass-circulation daily also reported that she said she will not run again as party leader.

Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of his centre-left Social Democrats in 2004 as his government struggled, but remained chancellor. For years, Merkel insisted that the chancellor should also be party leader.

Merkel currently governs Germany in a “grand coalition” of what traditionally have been the country’s biggest parties – the CDU, its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democrats. Her fourth-term government took office only in March but has become notorious for squabbling.

Sunday’s election in the central state of Hesse saw both Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union and the centre-left Social Democrats lose significant ground, while there were gains for both the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany. Merkel’s party managed an unimpressive win, narrowly salvaging a majority for its regional governing coalition with the Greens.

Angela Merkel’s troubles mount as her party appears to stumble in German regional elections

The debacle followed a battering in a state election in Bavaria two weeks ago for the CSU and the Social Democrats.

The Social Democrats’ leader, Andrea Nahles, demanded on Sunday a “clear, binding timetable” for implementing government projects before the coalition faces an already agreed midterm review next fall.

Nahles declined to comment on Monday on the reports that Merkel might step down as CDU leader. The chancellor was expected to hold a news conference later on Monday. </s> ANGELA Merkel has announced she will step down as Chancellor of Germany in 2021.

The veteran politician has faced calls from within her own Christian Democratic Party to give up after they were given a drubbing in regional elections.

She will leave the post of party chairman in December but has told party bosses she will cling on as German premier while her successor is chosen.

Her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of his party in 2004 but remained chancellor.

Merkel has led the CDU since 2000 and has been Germany's leader since 2005.

In the past she has firmly stated that Chancellor should also be a party leader but today's events appear to indicate a change of heart.

The CDU haemorrhaged votes, losing more than 11 per cent of its support, with the Greens and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) making big gains.

Merkel's decision to let in more than a million migrants in 2015 deeply divided the country and helped spark an election backlash.

German politics expert Nina Schick told The Sun: "This fast tracks her exit. It makes me think even more that she's not going to serve the entire term.

"She's not going to do a Margaret Thatcher or Helmut Kohl where you hang on and on. She's preparing to go. There's going to be a vacuum when she leaves."

Ms Shick said the news was "really bad" for French President Emmanuel Macron who has been relying on Merkel's help to reform the shaky eurozone.

But it will have virtually no impact on the Brexit talks except to leave Berlin even "less engaged" on what is already a peripheral topic.

The CDU is due to hold a conference in December at which the party's leadership is up for renewal.

Her party came first in yesterday's election in the western state of Hesse but support fell by more than 11 points.

The embattled 64-year-old is also having to contend with pressure from her Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners, who have bled support in Hesse and are under pressure to rethink their alliance with Merkel.

SPD leader Andrea Nahles, whose party saw support fall to its lowest since 1946, has threatened to end the alliance with the CDU if there is no improvement on policy.

Standing down from the party chair would allow a new CDU chairman or woman to build a profile before the next national election, due in 2021.

Merkel's coalition was twice on the brink of collapse, once over immigration policy and then over a dispute about the fate of the domestic intelligence chief who was accused of harbouring far-right views.

The instability has further eroded the credibility of the conservatives and the SPD in the eyes of Germans.

She currently governs Germany in a "grand coalition" of what traditionally have been the country's biggest parties the CDU, its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union, and the Social Democrats.

Her fourth-term government took only took office in March but has become notorious for internal squabbling.

Yesterday's election in the central state of Hesse saw both Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union and the centre-left Social Democrats lose significant ground, while there were gains for both the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Merkel's party managed an unimpressive win, narrowly salvaging a majority for its regional governing coalition with the Greens.

Angela Merkel was born Angela Kasner in Hamburg in July 1954.

Her father - a Lutheran pastor - was given a parish in a small town in Communist East Germany and the family moved when she was an infant.

After growing up in a rural area outside Berlin and earned a doctorate in physics, she later worked as a chemist at a scientific academy in East Berlin.

She married fellow student Ulrich Merkel in 1977 but divorced four years later.

Merkel met Berlin chemistry professor from Joachim Sauer in 1981 and the couple married privately in 1998. They do not have any children.

When did she announce she is stepping down as German Chancellor and what did she say?

On October 29, Angela Merkel announced she would not seek re-election as Chancellor of Germany in 2021.

She also said that she's known since the summer break that she no longer wanted to be the CDU chairman and that she will not run again for the position in December.

The announcement follows a crushing blow in regional elections in which the party haemorrhaged votes, losing more than 11 per cent of its support, with the Greens and far-right alternative for Germany making big gains.

It's thought voters have punished Merkel over her decision to let in more than a million migrants in 2015 - a move that deeply divided the country.

Merkel told reporters that being Chancellor has been a "very challenging and fulfilling task."

According to CNN, she told reporters: "It is time today for me to start a new chapter.

"This fourth term is my last term as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

"In the next Bundestag election in 2021, I will not run again as Chancellor.

"I will not run for the German Bundestag any more, and I do not want any other political office."



 How long has she been in office?

Angela Merkel has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000.

The 64-year-old outgoing leader has been described in the past as the "de facto leader of the European Union" and the "most powerful woman in the world".

Merkel decision to resign could spark a race within the CDU to find her successor as chancellor, a position which is usually determined in Germany's federal elections.

The next federal elections are provisionally scheduled for 2021.

It's thought that CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer could replace Merkel as Chancellor of Germany. </s> Angela Merkel has reportedly told her party that she is prepared to step down as its leader but remain as German chancellor.

Angela Merkel has reportedly told her party that she is prepared to step down as its leader but remain as German chancellor.

Germany’s Angela Merkel wants to give up party leadership - and says this is her final term as chancellor

News agency dpa cited unidentified party sources in its report as the leadership of Mrs Merkel's party met following a state election in which both her conservative Christian Democratic Union and its partners in the national government, the centre-left Social Democrats, lost significant ground.

Mass-circulation daily Bild reported, citing sources in the CDU leadership, that Mrs Merkel said she would not run again for the party leadership.

Mrs Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of his party in 2004 but remained chancellor.

Angela Merkel has reportedly told leaders of her conservative party that this will be her final parliamentary term as Germany's chancellor.

The comments came as Mrs Merkel met the leadership of her party following the Hesse state election in which her Christian Democratic Union party lost ground.

It had been widely assumed that this would be Mrs Merkel's final term as chancellor, but before the remarks reported by the dpa news agency she had not offered any confirmation.

Earlier in the meeting, Mrs Merkel had told party members that she would not run again for the party leadership at a conference in December. </s> BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, bruised by half a year of post-election coalition haggling, was on Wednesday (Mar 14) narrowly confirmed by parliament to her fourth and likely final term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy.

Lawmakers in Berlin's glass-domed Reichstag voted 364-315 with nine abstentions for Merkel, who was then formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before taking the oath of office.

The outcome of the secret ballot suggested 35 lawmakers of her new right-left coalition bloc voted against Merkel, giving her a thin nine-vote margin that opposition parties were quick to label a "rocky start" for a spent and joyless governing alliance.

Merkel, wearing a necklace in the national colours black-red-gold, nevertheless beamed with joy and relief as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where her scientist husband Joachim Sauer and her 89-year-old mother Herlind Kasner were among the well-wishers.

For the veteran leader, the ceremony marked the end of a painful stretch of post-election paralysis, the deepest crisis of her 12-year career.

A right-wing populist rise in September elections weakened all mainstream parties and deprived Merkel of a majority, forcing her into another unhappy alliance with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The grand coalition, mockingly dubbed a "GroKo" in German, didn't start as a "love marriage", her designated vice chancellor and finance minister, the SPD's Olaf Scholz, drily observed this week.

All coalition partners have nonetheless sought to allay fears that their marriage of convenience could break up mid-term, insisting they plan to jointly govern until 2021.

From 1600 GMT, Merkel sits down with her new cabinet, in which the SPD has wrested both the trophy posts of finance and foreign affairs to the dismay of a growing band of critics within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

To quieten the dissent, Merkel has named a sometimes outspoken critic, Jens Spahn, 37, as her new health minister and recently tapped a potential successor, new CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

"The chancellor was, from time to time, written off in the past six months," Marianne Kneuer of Hildesheim University told Phoenix TV.

"Many in the party started thinking about the future after Angela Merkel ... but at the same time Merkel has strengthened her position again."

On Friday Merkel will head to Paris to discuss EU reform plans with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a Mar 22-23 summit, after a lengthy stretch in which Berlin was hamstrung on the European and world stage.

Macron warned in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that, without Germany on board, "part of my project would be doomed to failure".

"We are completely dependent on each other. I do not believe for one second that a European project without or against Germany could succeed."

Merkel's incoming coalition has broadly welcomed Macron's bold reform plans, meant to reinvigorate the bloc and counter extremists and populists who have made major gains in Western democracies.

She has argued that the EU must increasingly look after its own interests in the era of US President Donald Trump, who has questioned long-standing transatlantic defence ties and threatened a trade war.

Berlin advocates closer EU cooperation on defence, immigration and plans for a European Monetary Fund. But it is lukewarm on the idea of a joint eurozone finance minister and rejects any pooling of debt.

The rise of populist fringe parties is also the central domestic threat for Merkel's new coalition, which faces the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the biggest opposition party.

The AfD scored almost 13 per cent in the election, capitalising on public fears over a mass influx of more than one million refugees and migrants since 2015 and angrily demanding that "Merkel must go".

The shock rise of the AfD has come at the expense of the CDU, its Bavarian CSU allies and especially the SPD, all of which suffered their worst results in decades in September.

While Merkel's last GroKo had a crushing 80 per cent parliamentary majority, the margin has shrunk to 56 per cent.

To answer the new right-wing threat, designated interior minister Horst Seehofer has pledged a "zero tolerance" law-and-order drive and faster deportations of failed asylum-seekers.

His new interior super-ministry also covers "Heimat" or homeland affairs, a term much derided for evoking Alpine vistas, beer and bratwurst but intended to recapture claims to patriotism from the AfD.

Scholz has meanwhile promised to tackle another fear exploited by populists, of vanishing jobs in the age of globalisation and rapid technological change.

"When we look at the Trump election, Brexit and the success of right-wing populist parties in many European countries," Scholz said, "we see there is a clear need to find new answers to the challenges of the 21st century."
Following a disappointing state election on Sunday, German chancellor Angela Merkel announces that she will not seek re-election as party head at a conference in early December and as German chancellor in 2021.