Angela Merkel says she will not seek re-election as German Chancellor
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HAMBURG, GERMANY - JULY 08: German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to the media following the conclusion of the G20 economic summit on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. G20 leaders have reportedly agreed on trade policy for their summit statement but disagree over climate change policy. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Monday that she would not seek re-election when her term expires in 2021.
Merkel, who has been Chancellor since 2005, made the announcement during a news conference today in Berlin.
“It is time today for me to start a new chapter,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.
“This fourth term is my last term as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the next Bundestag election in 2021, I will not run again as Chancellor. I will not run for the German Bundestag any more, and I do not want any other political office.”
Merkel told reporters that being Chancellor has been a “very challenging and fulfilling task.”
Merkel’s decision appears to mark the beginning of the end of her 13-year dominance of European politics.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to delegates of her political party, the Christian Democratic Union, in 2018.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1954, but she grew up in East Germany. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a Lutheran minister and her mother, Herlind, was an English teacher.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Joerg Glaescher/laif/LAIF/Redux
Merkel, left, attends a New Year's Eve party with friends in Berlin in 1972. In 1977, at the age of 23, she married her first husband, Ulrich Merkel. They divorced in 1982, but she kept the name.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel poses with her siblings, Marcus and Irene Kasner.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Ebner/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Merkel visits a children's home during her campaign to become a member of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, in 1990. Before turning to politics, Merkel had trained as a physician. She was also a spokeswoman for the "Democratic Awakening," East Germany's opposition movement before reunification.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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A month after being elected to the Bundestag, Merkel was appointed to Germany's Cabinet in January 1991. Chancellor Helmut Kohl named her Minister for Women and Youth.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel looks at Kohl during a conference of the Christian Democratic Union, their political party, in 1991. At the time, Merkel was a deputy chairwoman for the party.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel changed Cabinet positions in 1994, becoming Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Here, she visits a water-control station in Bad Honnef, Germany, in 1995.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel, as the country's leader on environmental issues, irons wrapping paper to show how it can be recycled.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel and Health Minister Horst Seehofer attend a Cabinet meeting in 1995.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel sits in a "strandkorb," or beach basket, in an undated photo. In 2000, Merkel became the Christian Democratic Union's first female chairperson. It was the opposition party at the time.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel, left, attends the opening of the Wagner Festival, an annual music festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in 2001.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel spends part of her summer in Langballig, Germany, in 2002.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002, one of many meetings they would have over the years. Merkel speaks Russian fluently, while Putin speaks German.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel speaks in Nuremberg, Germany, ahead of federal elections in 2005.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel is sworn in as Germany's first female chancellor in November 2005.
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Merkel visits the White House in January 2006. A few days later she also visited the Kremlin in Russia.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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US President George W. Bush shows off a barrel of pickled herrings he was presented after arriving in Stralsund, Germany, in July 2006.
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Merkel visits troops stationed in Turkey in February 2013. Later that year she was re-elected for a third term.
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Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, walk with US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama before a dinner in Berlin in June 2013. Merkel and Sauer have been married since 1998.
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Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images)
Merkel speaks to Obama on the sidelines of a G7 summit near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in June 2015.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Courtesy of Time Magazine
Merkel was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2015. Time Editor-at-Large Karl Vick described her as "the de factos leader of the European Union" by virtue of being leader of the EU's largest and most economically powerful member state. Twice that year, he said, the EU had faced "existential crises" that Merkel had taken the lead in navigating -- first the Greek debt crisis faced by the eurozone, and then the ongoing migrant crisis.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel and Obama test a virtual-reality headset at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in April 2016.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference at the White House in March 2017.
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Merkel raises her glass during a toast at the Trudering Festival in Munich, Germany, in May 2017.
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Merkel records her annual televised New Year's address in December 2017.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung Handout via Getty Images
In this photo provided by the German Government Press Office, Merkel talks with Trump as they are surrounded by other leaders at the G7 summit in June 2018. According to two senior diplomatic sources, the photo was taken when there was a difficult conversation taking place regarding the G7's communique and several issues the United States had leading up to it.
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In this handout photo provided by the German Government Press Office in July 2018, Merkel meets a newborn calf during a visit to the Trede family dairy farm in Nienborstel, Germany.
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Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images
Merkel offers flowers to Volker Bouffier, the state premier of Hesse and the deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, ahead of a party leadership meeting in October 2018. The day before, her coalition government suffered heavy losses in a key regional election in Hesse.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images
Merkel speaks at a debate on the future of Europe during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in November 2018. Merkel made a call for a future European army and for a European Security Council that would centralize defense and security policy on the continent.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Merkel touches the scepter of a Carnival prince during the annual Carnival reception in Berlin in February 2019.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images
Merkel poses for photos with students as she visits a secondary school in Berlin in April 2019.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel talks with European Council President Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Theresa May at a roundtable meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in April 2019. May was in Brussels to formally present her case for a short Brexit delay.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Jack Hill/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prime Minister Theresa May, greets Merkel in Portsmouth, England, in June 2019. It was ahead of an event marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Odd Anderson/AFP/Getty Images
Merkel and new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspect a military honor guard as he arrives for his first official visit to Germany in June 2019. Merkel was seen shaking during the ceremony, but she later suggested dehydration was to blame and said that she was doing "very well."
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Markus Schreiber/AP
The hands of Merkel and Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne are seen as they listen to national anthems in Berlin in July 2019. Merkel's body visibly shook again, raising concerns over her health. She said she was fine and that she has been "working through some things" since she was first seen shaking in June.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Markus Schreiber/AP
Raindrops cover the window of a car as Merkel arrives for the opening of the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin in July 2019.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Steffen Kugler/Bundesregierung/Getty Images
In March 2020, Merkel delivered a rare televised message and told the German people that the coronavirus pandemic is the nation's gravest crisis since World War II.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Filip Singer/Pool/Getty Images
Merkel attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Neue Wache Memorial in Berlin in May 2020. It was the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, otherwise known as Victory in Europe (VE) Day.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
John Thys/AFP/Pool/Getty Images
Merkel and other world leaders look over documents during a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, in July 2020. Leaders agreed to create a €750 billion ($858 billion) recovery fund to rebuild EU economies ravaged by the coronavirus crisis.
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Merkel meets with US President Joe Biden at the White House in July 2021.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel receives a medal from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, during the opening of the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin in September 2021. The new center's purpose is to better track world health threats and help prevent future ones.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
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Merkel feeds Australian lorikeets at the Marlow Bird Park in Marlow, Germany, in September 2021.
Photos: Angela Merkel's life in pictures
Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture-alliance/Sipa
A child gives Merkel a gingerbread heart with the inscription "Danke CDU," meaning "Thank you, CDU," during a Christian Democratic Union campaign event in Aachen, Germany, in September 2021. At left is Armin Laschet, Merkel's successor at the helm of the CDU, a long-time ally of the Chancellor and the party's deputy leader since 2012. He was one of the candidates who ran to replace her.
Merkel also announced on Monday that she would stand down from the chairmanship of her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party after 18 years in the post.
She said that she’s known since the summer break that she no longer wanted to be the CDU chairman and that during the party’s conference in December she will not run again for the position.
The announcement is a sign of Merkel’s weakened power within her own party, and waning popularity in the country.
Both parties under Merkel’s ruling coalition – the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) – suffered heavy losses in a regional election over the weekend.
While the CDU remained the largest party in the election, which was held in the central state of Hesse, its vote was down 10% from the previous election.
This weekend’s election was a second blow to Merkel’s fragile “grand coalition” government. On October 14, the Christian Social Union, or CSU – the Bavarian sister party to the CDU – lost its majority in the Bavarian state parliament.
The CSU has dominated politics in the state since the end of World War II, ruling for all but three years over the course of nearly seven decades.
Speaking on October 15, Merkel admitted that voters had lost trust in the government.
Bavaria bore the brunt of the 2015 refugee crisis; at its peak, thousands of asylum seekers were crossing into the state every day. Since then, both Merkel and her CSU allies have been criticized for their management of the influx.
What this means for Germany and beyond
Leopold Traugott, policy analyst at think tank Open Europe, told CNN that Merkel was a stable leader in a “global politics that’s become increasingly disorderly.”
He said that while Germany needs to look for a new leading figure, allies and opponents abroad “will have to prepare for a different, perhaps more difficult partner in Berlin.”
Merkel deliberates with US president Donald Trump on the sidelines of the official agenda on the second day of the G7 summit on June 9, 2018 in Charlevoix, Canada.
Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung via Getty Images
“Germany will become even more inward-looking in the near future – a trend we have seen since last year’s general election already,” Traugott said.
“This means there will be less German involvement in key European debates, but also on global issues the country is less likely to take a leading role.
“It will be particularly painful for French president Emmanuel Macron, who was hoping for Merkel’s support in his plans for wide-reaching European reform. It seems ever less likely he will receive this support from Berlin.”
