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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday (Jun 4) she is "absolutely not" planning to stand for re-election to a fifth term despite her overwhelming popularity.
"No, absolutely not," Merkel told reporters from public broadcaster ZDF, saying her decision was "very firm".
The 65-year-old chancellor enjoys unparallelled popularity in her home country, with 71 percent of people saying they were satisfied with her performance in a poll for public broadcaster ARD also published on Thursday.
Her ratings have climbed as Germany has suffered comparatively less than some European neighbours through the coronavirus crisis.
Merkel's conservative CDU party is set to elect a new leader at the end of 2020 who would then become presumptive candidate to succeed her in the chancellery at federal elections in autumn next year.
Without a political office to keep him in the public eye, the star of her historic rival Friedrich Merz has lost some of its shine.
Other candidates include Armin Laschet, premier of Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia.
Meanwhile some observers have highlighted the strongman performance of Bavarian premier Markus Soeder through the pandemic, who as chief of the CDU's regional CSU allies could also throw his hat into the federal ring come next year./channelnewsasia.com
The new political season in Bulgaria began with a striking and controversial proposal from the leader of the pro-Russian anti-EU party "Revival," Kostadin Kostadinov.
Bulgaria has finalized a contract to acquire seven minehunter ships, marking a significant step in modernizing the country’s naval capabilities. The announcement came after a government meeting, with outgoing Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov confirming t
Bulgaria’s National Assembly on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have removed National Security Service (NSS) security from members of parliament.
Following the return of the second exploratory mandate by “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria” (WCC-DB) to President Rumen Radev, former Finance Minister Asen Vassilev commented on the ongoing debate over changes to Bulgaria’s Electoral Code
Nadezhda Yordanova formally accepted the second mandate to form a government from President Rumen Radev on behalf of the parliamentary group "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) and immediately returned it unfulfilled
A demonstration calling for the restoration of the Bulgarian lev took place outside the National Assembly on the first working day of MPs for the year, coinciding with the political process of the president handing over the second mandate to form a govern
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