Chancellor Merkel to seek fourth term
BERLIN (AP): ANGELA MERKEL will seek a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor in general elections next year, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday.
Dpa, citing sources at the Berlin headquarters of Merkel’s Christian Democrat party, reported that the 62year-old chancellor will also run to be re-elected as the party’s chairwoman when it holds its national convention next month.
Merkel was expected to declare her candidacy for chancellor at a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Sunday.
A physicist by training, Merkel became Germany’s first female head of government in 2005. She is also the first leader of a reunited Germany to have grown up under communism in the former East Germany.
If she wins next year and serves the entire four-year term, Merkel would match her one-time mentor Helmut Kohl’s post-war record of 16 years in office.
Repeatedly named ‘The World’s Most Powerful Woman’ by Forbes magazine, Merkel also has been suggested by some as the last powerful defender of liberal values in the West following Donald Trump’s election as the next US president.
Nearly 60 per cent of Germans surveyed in a recent poll said they wanted Merkel to run for office again, said Manfred Guellner, the head of the Forsa polling agency.
“In these difficult times, Merkel is a pillar of stability,” Guellner told The Associated Press. “People have the feeling she represents German interests well abroad.”
While she’s never been described as a visionary or earned much praise for stirring speeches, Merkel has won respect for being tough, shrewd and doggedly tackling problems.