German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will stand for re-election next year, party
sources told DPA on Sunday,20 November 2016.
Germans
have been waiting for months for clarity on whether Merkel - who has been in
power since 2005 - will run for a fourth term in September 2017 elections.
The
62-year-old Christian Democrat (CDU) leader has faced a number of difficulties
in recent months, from criticism of her handling of the migration crisis to
falling support amid a rise in right-wing populist sentiment.
Despite
the troubles, she remains unchallenged within the CDU as the party's most
prominent and popular figure.
On
announcing her candidacy to CDU insiders in Berlin, Merkel also said she
will stand again as leader of the centre-right party, dpa learned. A new CDU
leadership is to be appointed in a members' vote on December 6.
A
fourth term would put Merkel in the running to be the longest-serving chancellor
in German history. CDU co-founder Konrad Adenauer held the position for 14
years, with Merkel's one-time mentor, Helmut Kohl, holding the record at 16
years in power.
Her
candidacy comes against the backdrop of political turbulence across Europe,
especially in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the European Union, and
as growing populist movements siphon off support from the political centre
ground.
The
surprise win of Republican outsider Donald Trump in the US election and
imminent departure of Merkel's close ally, Barack Obama, also reheated
speculation on the future of the German leader.
During a farewell
visit to Berlin earlier this week, Obama said that if he were German and had a
vote, he would support Merkel for another term.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel's first three terms in office have been marked for the
most part by prudence, adaptability and solid public support, but they have not
been without controversy.
Below
are four events that have defined her tenure thus far:
THE NUCLEAR U-TURN
IN 2011:
After
the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, Merkel
made an astounding political U-turn by saying that nuclear power should be
phased out in Germany as soon as possible. She announced that her government
wanted to achieve a complete phase-out by 2020.
With
the mantra "If the euro fails, then Europe fails," Merkel endorsed a
successful plan for the European Central Bank to prevent a Greek default by
buying bonds. In what many perceived as a smart political move, she allowed
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble to become the face of German intransigence
amid strong opposition to her austerity policies from countries including
Greece and Italy.
THE SNOOPING SCANDAL IN 2013:
Revelations from US
whistleblower Edward Snowden about Germany's foreign intelligence agency
BND aiding US espionage in Europe caused a massive outcry.
Embarrassingly for Merkel, the targets
including the French presidency, the French Foreign Ministry and the European
Commission, as well as possibly private companies. Though the chancellor
promised the scandal would be "completely cleared up" by a
parliamentary committee, that committee was later denied access to a list of
spying targets.
THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN 2015:
As hundreds of thousands of
people were fleeing war in the Middle East to seek refuge in Europe in 2015,
Merkel announced they could settle in Germany. The decision was initially
lauded both at home and abroad, but criticism of her decision to keep Germany's
borders open gained momentum just weeks later. The right-wing Alternative for
Germany (AfD) party became a serious political force off the back of fears
that the influx was a threat to domestic security. Merkel has largely stood by
her decision, but conceded that she would have prepared Germany differently if
she had known about the scale of the influx ahead of time.
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