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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