Weakened Merkel to step down in 2021
Veteran politician hopes her planned departure will end fighting in coalition
Angela Merkel yesterday announced she will quit as German chancellor when her mandate ends in 2021, as she sought to draw a line under a series of political crises that have rocked her fragile coalition.
Taking a decisive step towards the end of her political career, the veteran leader who has led Germany for 13 years said she hoped her planned departure would end bitter fighting in her coalition and finally focus it on its task of governing Europe’s biggest economy.
“Today, it is time to begin a new chapter,” she told reporters at her party headquarters.
Four declare interest
Referring to the quibbling within her coalition that has sent it from crisis from crisis, Merkel noted that “the picture that the government is sending out is unacceptable”.
Electoral drubbings like the latest on Sunday in the state of Hessen were “a watershed, but in them could lie a chance”, Merkel said, for Germany’s mainstream political parties including her own to find a way forward.
Merkel, 64, will stagger her political exit by first giving up the leadership job of her Christian Democratic Union in December, which comes up for reelection during a party congress in December.
She added she would not stand in Germany’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 to seek Merkel’s job after she made her stunning announcement.
But she said she would not name a successor.
“I will accept any democratic decision taken by my party,” she said.