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Why is Angela Merkel stepping down as Chancellor of Germany and how long has she been in office?
Here's what you need to know about Angela Merkel and why she is stepping down as Chancellor of Germany
ANGELA Merkel has announced she is stepping down as Chancellor of Germany and will not seek re-election in 2021.
She has also said she is leaving the position of Chairman in her own party in December - here's what you need to know.
1
Who is Angela Merkel?
Angela Merkel was born Angela Kasner in Hamburg in July 1954.
Her father - a Lutheran pastor - was given a parish in a small town in Communist East Germany and the family moved when she was an infant.
After growing up in a rural area outside Berlin and earned a doctorate in physics, she later worked as a chemist at a scientific academy in East Berlin.
She married fellow student Ulrich Merkel in 1977 but divorced four years later.
Merkel met Berlin chemistry professor from Joachim Sauer in 1981 and the couple married privately in 1998. They do not have any children.
When did she announce she is stepping down as German Chancellor and what did she say?
On October 29, Angela Merkel announced she would not seek re-election as Chancellor of Germany in 2021.
She also said that she's known since the summer break that she no longer wanted to be the CDU chairman and that she will not run again for the position in December.
The announcement follows a crushing blow in regional elections in which the party haemorrhaged votes, losing more than 11 per cent of its support, with the Greens and far-right alternative for Germany making big gains.
It's thought voters have punished Merkel over her decision to let in more than a million migrants in 2015 - a move that deeply divided the country.
Merkel told reporters that being Chancellor has been a "very challenging and fulfilling task."
According to , she told reporters: "It is time today for me to start a new chapter.
"This fourth term is my last term as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
"In the next Bundestag election in 2021, I will not run again as Chancellor.
"I will not run for the German Bundestag any more, and I do not want any other political office."
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How long has she been in office?
Angela Merkel has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000.
The 64-year-old outgoing leader has been described in the past as the "de facto leader of the European Union" and the "most powerful woman in the world".
Merkel decision to resign could spark a race within the CDU to find her successor as chancellor, a position which is usually determined in Germany's federal elections.
The next federal elections are provisionally scheduled for 2021.
It's thought that CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer could replace Merkel as Chancellor of Germany.
Angela Merkel suffers shock defeat in key party vote hailed ‘the beginning of the end’ for the German leader
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