BERLIN : Angela Merkel confirmed on Sunday that she will seek a fourth term as German Chancellor in next year’s election, ending months of speculation. “I thought about this for an endlessly long time. The decision (to run) for a fourth term is – after 11 years in office – anything but trivial,” Merkel told a news conference after a meeting of senior members of her conservative Christian Democrats. The 62-year-old conservative is widely seen as a stabilising force in Europe amid uncertainty after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and as a bastion of Western liberal values after the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.
She has already served 11 years as chancellor of Europe’s biggest economy.
