A Slow, Somber End to the Merkel Era
At a press conference following her party’s disappointing showing in state elections in Bavaria and Hesse, Merkel announced what Germans long expected—that her centrist reign will come to an end.
BERLIN—Angela Merkel announced to the world on Monday what everyone here already saw coming: that her time as Germany’s leader is nearing its end.
Merkel—who has led her party for 18 years and her country for 13—will continue as Germany’s chancellor until the next federal elections, expected in 2021, but she will relinquish her position as the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) in December and won’t run for further political office. “I am sure today that it’s time to open a new chapter,” she told reporters in Berlin.
It is hard to overstate the immensity of this moment in German politics: Merkel led her country through economic crises and a vast wave of migration, and came to be seen as Europe’s most powerful leader and
