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2nd LD: Merkel announces bid for fourth term as German chancellor

Xinhua, November 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she wants to run for the fourth term in 2017 election, German media Spiegel Online reported on Sunday.

She made the announcement in a presidium meeting of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by her on Sunday, as several news agencies reported citing party sources.

The 62-year-old also announced her bid for CDU's presidency on Sunday.

The CDU will hold election on December 6 at its National Party Conference in the German city of Essen.

In the past few days, more and more politicians of the Union party, a bloc of CDU and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), have assumed that Merkel will compete for both offices again.

Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), also made it clear that he was expecting this.

Merkel has been CDU chairman since April 2000 and German chancellor since November 2005. If she wins for the fourth time in 2017, she has the chance to beat the record holder Helmut Kohl who was 16 years in office.

An Emnid survey published by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed that 55 percent of Germans wants a further mandate of Merkel, while 39 percent would not wish Merkel to remain as chancellor after the election in 2017. Endit