Reports: Merkel from Germany is preparing to give up a party job
Reports: Merkel from Germany is preparing to give up a party job
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Angela Merkel, from Germany, announced on Monday that she will step down from her conservative party in December after 18 years and will not seek a fifth term as chancellor in 2021, initiating a leadership transition in Europe's largest economy.
Merkel has led her conservative Christian Democratic Union since 2000 and Germany since 2005. It put Germany, and Europe, on the road to a new political era after voters punished Germany's ruling parties in a state election on Sunday, the latest in a series of problems that affected their federal administration. fourth mandate.
Currently, Merkel governs Germany in a "grand coalition" of what have traditionally been the country's largest parties: the CDU, the conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria and the center-left Social Democrats. His current coalition took office only in March, after six months of tortuous negotiations, but it has become notorious for its disputes.
The 64-year-old Chancellor's personal popularity remains solid, but she seemed willing to begin a period of orderly transition amid signs that her authority is eroding. Merkel will now focus her energy on keeping her government going until 2021, something that remains uncertain.
Merkel told reporters in Berlin that she has led the CDU with "passion and dedication," but added that "today is the time to start a new chapter."
That will begin with the delivery of the party's leadership to a successor at a party congress in December.
"This fourth term is my final term as chancellor," Merkel added. "I will not run as a chancellor in the 2021 elections, and I will not seek re-election to the German parliament, and for the record, I will not aspire to any other political office."
It had been widely assumed that this would be Merkel's last term in office, but the comments were the first public confirmation by the chancellor.
For years, Merkel has insisted that the chancellor should also be the leader of the party. But on Monday he said he had decided that dividing the two jobs is "justifiable" since he did not plan to seek a fifth term as chancellor.
"With this decision, I am trying to help allow the government to concentrate its strength, finally, on governing well, and people rightly demand it," Merkel said.
At the same time, he said that the CDU will be able to "prepare for the moment after me."
She said she had been reflecting on her decision for months. Merkel's sole mentor, Helmut Kohl, sought a fifth term in 1998 and lost power after 16 years.
There is a precedent for the chancellor not to lead his party.
Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, resigned as leader of his Social Democrats in 2004 while his government fought, but remained as chancellor until he lost an election for a short time 18 months later. Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982, never led the Social Democrats.
Two prominent candidates immediately threw their hats into the ring for the leadership of the CDU. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who resigned her position as state governor this year to become the party's general secretary, is seen as an ally of Merkel and largely supports her centrist approach.
And Health Minister Jens Spahn, an ambitious conservative who has spoken harshly about migration and criticized Merkel, defends a more right-wing candidate.
Merkel said it would not interfere with the election of her successor.
"Historically, that has always gone wrong and I will not participate in trying to influence discussions about my successor," he said. "I see this as an opening, a phase of opportunities."
Merkel dragged the CDU to the political center in its years as leader, abandoned military service, introduced benefits by encouraging parents to take care of their young children and abruptly accelerating the closure of Germany's nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011
She put her conservatives behind the bailouts for Greece and other eurozone nations that were fighting, striking a balance between calls for a strict approach in the country and more generosity abroad.
In one of her most debated movements, Merkel allowed a large number of asylum seekers to enter Germany in 2015, many of them fleeing fighting in Syria, declaring that "we will achieve it", before gradually moving to a more restrictive approach of migration. That decision has provoked lasting tensions in its conservative Union bloc, in particular with the CSU of Bavaria, and has helped the alternative extreme right-wing anti-immigrant party for Germany gain support.
At the other end of the spectrum, traditionally left-wing Greens have also gained support.
Sunday's elections in the central state of Hesse saw both the CDU and the Social Democrats lose significant ground amid gains for the Green party and the Alternative for Germany. Merkel's party achieved an impressive victory in Hesse, barely saving the majority of its regional government coalition with the Greens in the state.
The debacle came after a beating in a state election in Bavaria two weeks ago for the CSU and the Social Democrats.
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David Rising contributed to this story.
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