German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reflects on Her Time in Office and the Future of German Politics
In a recent interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, Angela Merkel, the former German Chancellor, expressed her neutral sentiment about no longer attending summits of state and government leaders. When asked if she felt any nostalgia about her absence, she replied, “I can roughly imagine how it will go, but there’s no melancholy.” Merkel noted that if she had been voted out of office after a legislative period, she might have felt a sense of loss, but her 16 years as Chancellor were an “unbelievably long time.”
Merkel also commented on the possibility of a woman being elected as the next German President in 2027, stating, “Never has a woman held the highest state office. I may not be able to precisely predict the majority in the Federal Convention for 2027, but I would be delighted if a woman were the number one in the state, after I was the Chancellor and several female Bundestag presidents have since held office.”
The current German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is not eligible for re-election in 2027. Recently, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and several other top politicians have expressed their support for a female candidate in the next election.