‘I’LL SERVE FULL TERM’

Merkel vows to stay on amid criticism of concessions in coalition deal

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she plans to serve another full four-year term, despite growing criticism in her conservative ranks of the concessions she made to hold onto power.

She said despite the sniping over a poor election result and the loss of key ministries in a fresh coalition deal, she felt no loss of authority and wanted to stay at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy until 2021.

“I am a person who keeps what she has promised,” she told public broadcaster ZDF.

Merkel won September elections, but fell short of a clear majority, in large part due to the rise of the far-right, antiimmigration AfD, which took votes away from major parties.

After a gruelling marathon of negotiations, she forged on Wednesday another “grand coalition” deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who extracted a high price.

SPD snatched the finance, foreign, labour, justice and environment ministries, while Merkel’s Bavarian allies CSU took the Interior Ministry.

Handing over the Finance Ministry — long the domain of Merkel lieutenant and fiscal hawk Wolfgang Schaeuble — “was one concession too many,” fumed lawmaker Wolfgang Bosbach, reflecting a widely held view in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Merkel said losing the Finance Ministry was “painful”, but defended the move as “acceptable”, since the alternative would have been a breakdown in talks and likely snap elections.

In a nod to party critics, who want to see a new generation enter the top ranks, she said her next cabinet would include younger conservative politicians and cover “the full breadth” of opinion in CDU.