Chancellor Merkel announces bid for fourth term
BERLIN: Angela Merkel, who has steered Germany through several global crises as its first woman leader, said on Sunday she will seek a fourth term as chancellor in general elections next year.
“I literally thought about this decision endlessly ... but I am ready to run for office again,’’ Ms Merkel told reporters after meeting with high-ranking members of her centre-right party.
“I want to serve Germany.’’
Ms Merkel said she expected strong challenges from the left and right fringes of society as Germany has become more polarised.
“This election will be difficult — like no other election since the reunification’’ of West and East Germany in 1990, she said
The 62-year-old chancellor said she also will run to be re-elected as chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union party when it holds its national convention next month. She faces no serious opposition within the party.
A physicist by training, Ms Merkel became chancellor in
2005. She is 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, Ms 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, Ms 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% of Germans surveyed in a recent poll said they wanted Ms 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,’’ Mr Guellner said. “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, Ms Merkel has won respect for being tough, shrewd and doggedly tackling problems.
Since becoming chancellor, she’s dealt with several international crises, including the Eurozone debt crisis in 2008-09 for which she brokered compromises among fractious European Union leaders.
She has been a strong advocate of efforts to combat climate change, and in 2011 abruptly accelerated the shutdown of Germany’s nuclear power plants following the meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima plant.
Unresolved diplomatic challenges include Europe’s relationship with Russia, the future of Ukraine, autocratic developments in Turkey, the ongoing war in Syria and negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU.
Ms Merkel also needs to brace herself for the populist wave sweeping both the US and Europe, where elections next year could see a far-right politician become president of France.
Domestically, the nationalist Alterative for Germany, or AfD, could prove to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to her re-election. The populist party, which is now represented in 10 state parliaments, has aggressively campaigned against Ms Merkel’s decision to welcome an estimated 890,000 migrants into Germany last year.
In elections in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania earlier this year, Ms Merkel’s party came in third behind the Alliance for Germany. According to recent polls, the AfD would win about 10% of the vote if general elections were to be held now.