German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said she would step down at the end of her term in 2021 after a series of political crises and regional vote debacles rocked her fragile coalition.
Ms. 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.
She told party top brass her mandate running to 2021 will be “her last term”, a party source told AFP, adding that she has no plans to seek a post in the European Commission following that, despite speculation to that effect in Brussels.
Ms. Merkel will also not stand again as leader of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a clear sign that the German leader is preparing for her eventual succession after a series of regional vote defeats.
National news agency DPA had earlier said she planned to remain chancellor even as she gave up the top party job.
“She will not stand again for the chairmanship of her party” when it meets at a congress in December to elect a new leader, said the source within the CDU.
Ms. Merkel has chaired the CDU for 18 years and has until now insisted that the presidency of the party went hand in hand with the chancellorship post.
In power as chancellor for 13 years, Ms. Merkel has become greatly weakened since last year's general election, when voters handed her an inconclusive result that forced her to form an uneasy coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats.
Over the last two weeks, voters in the states of Hesse and Bavaria also punished her party and coalition allies CSU and SPD in two separate regional elections.
Ms. Merkel is due to hold a press conference later in the day.
