Merkel eying fourth term as Chancellor: German media
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who is one of the most important figures in the European debt crisis, is considering running for a fourth term in office, according to a report in Der Spiegel, the German broadsheet.
If successful in the next German general election, due in 2017, Merkel would be in power until 2021, matching her former mentor Helmut Kohl with the longest period leading Germany since Otto von Bismarck, the legendary nineteenth century German chancellor.
She has already begun discussing a fourth run with two top officials from her Christian Democratic Union party, according to the Spiegel report, eighteen months before the campaign would begin. It is not clear if she will run for a full four-year term, according to the report.
If Merkel stayed in power, it would be extremely significant for the European Union as well as Germany. She has been one of the most pro-austerity voices in the ongoing attempts to resolve the fallout from the region's debt crisis, particularly when it comes to struggling bailed-out nation Greece.
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