German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Monday that she will not seek re-election as party leader in December but intends to stay on as chancellor until her term ends in 2021, Germany's DPA news agency reports. Merkel, 64, has led the CDU since 2000 and been chancellor since 2005. She had said earlier she intended to seek another two-year term as party leader, but after two consecutive setbacks for her party in regional elections in Hesse on Sunday and Bavaria a week earlier, she apparently changed her mind.
Merkel had previously said a chancellor should also be leader of the governing party, but her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, stepped down as leader of the Social Democrats in 2004 and former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was never leader of his party, also the center-left Social Democrats, The Associated Press reports. Stepping down now will allow her party to settle on a successor before the next election. There is no clear candidate to replace Merkel, but the most likely contenders are seen to be her handpicked CDU general secretary, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer; socially conservative Health Minister Jens Spahn, a critic of Merkel's refugee policy; and parliamentary caucus leader Ralph Brinkhaus.
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