Angela Merkel to 'step down' as German chancellor at end of her term in 2021

Angela Merkel on Monday announced that she will step down as German chancellor at the end of her term in 2021 after a series of political crises and regional vote debacles rocked her fragile coalition. 

Merkel had earlier informed her centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) that she would not stand again to be the party chairman at a congress in December to make way for new leadership.

 "Today it is time to begin a new chapter," she told reporters at her party headquarters. "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," she added. Merkel has been Chancellor since 2005 and her annoucement marks the beginning of the end of her 13-year dominance of European politics. (With agency inputs)

 

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