Merkel to step down as party leader
BERLIN: Angela Merkel will not run for re-election as leader of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union party, sources said yesterday after voters again punished her fragile coalition in a regional polls.
She would step down as chancellor when her mandate ends in 2021, a party source said.
She told party top brass her mandate running to 2021 would be “her last term”, a party source said, adding that she had no plans to seek a post in the European Commission despite speculation in Brussels.
Merkel had been widely expected to be reelected as CDU chief at a party congress next month.
The surprise news comes a day after the CDU and its junior federal coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD) suffered heavy losses in an election in the state of Hesse, just two weeks after a similar drubbing in Bavaria.
Both polls have been seen as damning verdicts on the rightleft “grand coalition”, which has lurched from crisis to crisis, often over the hot-button issue of migration.
With her authority badly weakened by last September’s inconclusive general election and ongoing squabbles in her unhappy coalition, the chancellor has faced mounting calls to prepare Germany for the post-Merkel era.
Die Welt reporter Robin Alexander said the path could now be clear for Merkel’s chosen heir, CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, to take the reins if no other credible candidate emerges by December.
“The two women have taken back the momentum because none of their opponents were ready for this,” he tweeted.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said on Sunday it would be “a mistake” for Merkel to cling to power.