Angela Merkel will not seek re-election as Germany’s chancellor when her term of office ends in 2021, she has confirmed, in a surprise address at her party headquarters on Monday.
The shock announcement comes as the premier met with the senior leadership of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party following heavy losses in regional elections in the state of Hesse.
It has been widely assumed in Germany that the current Bundestag term, which began in 2017, would be Ms Merkel’s last, but there had been no official confirmation of this until now. The leader told a news conference in Berlin it was “time for a new chapter” in German politics.
Ms Merkel said she took responsibility for the CDU’s recent losses in local elections and told party members that she would not run again for the leadership of her party at a conference in December.
This would leave her in the position of staying as chancellor while not being the leader of her own party. The German constitution has strict rules regulating the process of appointing the chancellor, with parties nominating a named candidate for the position ahead of elections.
The move would not be unprecedented: Helmut Schmidt, West Germany’s chancellor from 1974 to 1982, never led the SPD of which he is a member.
“Firstly, at the next CDU party congress in December in Hamburg, I will not put myself forward again as candidate for the CDU chair,” she told reporters…