this is deja news coming to you live from a political bombshell in germany reports say on love actually will not seek reelection as chancellor after more than a decade in power this follows earlier reports that mechelle intends to resign as leader of a conservative party just returned from a coalition and a pair of recent elections appear to have pushed machall towards the exit.

i'm on with that shima we begin with breaking news here in germany has reportedly said she will not seek another term as chancellor merkel is said to have two top officials in a conservative christian democratic union she will not be a candidate for reelection after her kind of term in office expires in two thousand and twenty one she would also reportedly give up a position as c.d.u. leader in the coming weeks hard decision follows a bruising election in the state of has so they have conservatives saw there was bizarre out in half a century. for the very latest we go to our political correspondent thomas sparrow he's at the christian democratic party headquarters welcome thomas what is the latest you are hearing that. well there's a press conference i'm retired that is about to start any minute now in fact you can see probably behind me how full it is here with journalists hoping to hear what

we've been reporting on all morning this news about chancellor angela merkel we have also heard from different c.d.u. officials that have been coming in here throughout the day for key meetings they have mentioned for example that that decision by angela merkel gives the party an opportunity to open a bit more debate about a possible successor although obviously they have been very careful when it comes to mentioning possible name saying that those decisions an announcement that will have to be made at a different point and time they have also stressed that the decision by i'm going to monaco can also pave the way for the c.d.u. to gain back some of the strength that it previously had strength that it suffered very clearly strength that it lost very clearly for example in the has the elections yesterday and in the various elections sister party c.s.u. a few weeks ago and that have obviously created all this debate here of the future of the c.d.u. the future of the c.d.u.

leadership on the future of the chancellery as well and just as you said the press conference of behind is due to start any minute but you've been there for the past couple of hours what is been the mood there what's been the atmosphere there after this news reports came that john some back to first has said that possibly she will not stand for party leader and secondly that she will not stand for another term as john's the. obviously there's a sense that things are changing here there was also a sense of urgency as we saw various top officials rush here into the c.d.u. headquarters and head up to the to the meeting where probably this was announced and discussed there is a sense among people when you talk to them here that things are changing in the c.d.u. and that that change is obviously made possible now to a large extent by the decision that anglo merkel announced to party officials in the decision that she is probably going to announce right here behind me whether that will mean a complete end to the problems of the c.d.u.

that's another question something that will have to be resolved later but at least party officials are hopeful that this could at least help the party to regain some of its previous strength right almost feral at the seaview headquarters of course we come alive to you as soon as that press conference starts the thank you very much for being us up to date for now. and for some analysis distant senior correspondent peter craven who was with me in the studio and i welcome just we have to. potentially announcements coming from just an american one that she's not going to be standing for party leader at a party conference in december and secondly that this will be her last term as chancellor she will not stand for a fifth term what do you think this announcement mean firstly for the conservative doc. i think the announcement that she's not going to stand for a fifth term is purely procedural exposer we can only be viewed that way i don't think anybody would assume that any time the tangle americal even angle americal the tireless anglo american could have quite the strident. and the yearning to to

go through for a fifth term and challenge for a fifth term i think the decision to not to stand any longer as party chair as head of the conservatives here in germany is a bombshell as you've said it's a huge surprise we came into this weekend election in the state of has some on sunday evening assuming that it could have significant impacts of the national level here in berlin and my word it was this is been an amazing. and amazing change of. the pattern of things the way the seemed was going to happen and i think that i think the press conference which is now urged you to be a movie is talking to us about that i think it's going to be very very moving i think i'm going to merkel apparently when she made the announcements of the senussi do you think is just an hour or two ago was visit really physically moved visibly moved and they were said that she was not in bits it and i think at this conference we're going to see i'm going to medical making history and perhaps using just

a little bit of this in this very difficult time on the rated sense of humor i think we'll see the human touch in play at this press conference and i think is going to be very moving the case of age if you read into that press conference to start meanwhile i mean if these announcements are confirmed and you're expecting them to be what will this mean for the grand coalition the c.d.u. is in a grand coalition. with the s.p.d. the center left one of two of the names that have been mentioned to replace and america list chair of the party like in russia from north rhine-westphalia he's a real middle of the road. a moderate kind of a centrist kind of a guy widely respected also mentioned a lot is not a great crime colombo the general secretary of the policy she has been for a number of months she's viewed as a woman has a big a big future very much a woman and i'm going to knuckle so mold that if it were either of those two i could see those two with the policy working together with the social democrats. and a grand coalition of the grand coalition and give it another try as it were i think

if it's somebody like friedrich's metz who replaces anglo-american law against foreign much more of a sort of a right of center conservative then i think it would be well nigh impossible for the grand coalition to consider it would break up there would be fresh elections would be difficult to see with christmas coming up and all this we were just we just spent the better part of the last year working through a whole election process an election cycle here joe we don't want it to happen again but i think it would be a certain inevitability if there was a sort of a new neo conservative member of the. party challenging for the leadership and winning it so you think i'm not depends on who takes over from academical as party leader should she decide that she's not going to stand for that post but to what extent of the developments that we're seeing today would seem to cause a bit of a crisis and both the s.p.d. and the c.d.u. a result of the election result sunday's election results in the state of hesse who

we've been talking for quite some time here in germany about the erosion of the folks part time as people call them the people sponsors the broad tent big integrative policies that have dominated german politics since the second world war effectively ended have been the bedrock the foundation for pretty stable politics in germany pretty predict predictable politics here in germany that look. so it is slowly changing as part of the change would see that the social democrats were losing support dramatically and suddenly we realize as observers we see that the christian democrats this concern to america's conservatives have to be losing support in the last couple of years since since twenty fifteen the level of support in german society has gone from forty percent to twenty four twenty five percent that's a dramatic loss and it really came into sharp focus yesterday evening and in the bavarian election two weeks earlier and i think the party hasn't panicked but it has realized that it too could be facing the kind of existential crisis that the

social democrats are already facing that to the conservatives won so stable as a force in german politics now fighting for their lives to right peter cave in thank you very much for now i'll come back to you for more as the developments come in but let's first go to another of our political correspondent nina harvest she set up on a mattress to this new no we just heard peter describe that the s.p.d. the center left party. and the grand coalition is going through what he discovers an existential crisis after the disasters result in the elections in has what implications do you think message america announcements expected to be made shortly will have on the party. well of course it will have tremendous implications also on the coalition partner of anglo-american as conservatives the social democrats you mentioned the results in has it but you also have to say that the s.p.d. the social democrats have been losing consistently for

a year now and they lost in the federal elections last year in september then they lost in bavaria and they always went down by some ten percentage points which is a tremendous loss of course lots of these voters went to the green party which has explained that result in that surge over there but. s.p.d. has been in an excess existential crisis as you say they have lost their profile in all of the surveys people answer to the question what do you see as the core strengths of the social democrats as i don't know there was a vast majority of voters who said the s.p.d. are not delivering on those core social democratic issues anymore and the party has been struggling for a very long time and until americans announcement of course has an implication here is that the state premier of the state of lower saxony has already said that they do want to know who they're in bed with now because of course they risk losing

their profile even more. you know as we heard that i'm going to mechanise on a tremendous pressure from within her own party a section of old party who would like her to go federally there also after the election results that you mention has an in bavaria nina how much pressure is the leader of the social democrats under analysis to step down. she has come under a lot of criticism especially from her youth wing who we have to remind ourselves never in favor of entering this grand coalition the so-called grand coalition with angela merkel's conservatives in the first place they warned that the party would lose its profile turns out but it looks like they were right from the start and sort of course they have their blaming under their knowledge for not making the decision to now leave the coalition and of course the s.p.d. does have some important dates head of itself where they have to make important decisions in terms of party leadership in terms of whether or not staying in the

coalition they will meet this coming sunday to decide over the future also of their party leaders then there's debate camp that the youth wing where the youth wing has already said that they want to discuss alternatives to the grand coalition and that will come up on the tenth and eleventh of november and they're talking about the profile of a lot of people accused. of stealing the agenda of the social democrats and co-opting their agenda into her party platform and thereby profiting from it but really departure as you need to head. in the right now they are. america has stolen some of the policies from other parties which also some people within her own party have criticized her for that they accuse her of having pushed the conservatives the c.d.u. to the center. some of the greens policies then she did take some of the social

democratic. positions and push them forward and the s.p.d. aren't doing badly in this current coalition that is the big interesting thing to watch they are pushing some of their agendas through but they're just not getting the message through that they're actually delivering and now they've said. coalition treaty it says that after two years they want to have a reassessment of whether or not this coalition is working and this would be in twelve months time but they've now given that's what we're hearing this morning they've now given the c.d.u. c.s.u. so the bavarian conservatives a deadline they want to know by december just what the how the conservatives plan to stop their internal party debates and their struggles and they've said that if they don't hear from that from this conservatives and if they don't hear about solutions how to deliver on the promises made to the voters then they might decide

about. a preliminary to the grand coalition and to the grand coalition right and that would of course mean a fresh elections in which is what no one wants to see as yet but as you say you know these are difficult times for german politics thank you very much dana has been giving us your analysis standing in front of the chancellor as office we'll of course return to you later in the program as we have more details. but now to return to a few no particular correspondent peter craven afraid of we had no talk about or raise the possibility off it's pretty good drawing out of the grand coalition in case its demands are not met so you have to kill facing pressure from within our own party and also from local edition. and you use the words fresh elections you know which is truly what nobody wants here in germany just to remind our viewers that the last election took place that last year in september there was

an initial round of negotiations with three german parties that broke down after many weeks and months as it turned out and then there was a second round of negotiations and it took right through to march before we got a government in place then the government spent months and quarrelling meanwhile europe's germany's neighbors around europe would be looking on hoping to get a go. it's going to be doing some some some prognathic business in the american style for all the money we'll mccraw he's been waiting for a whole year now for an answer to his famous obama speech inviting germany to participate in a in a new kind of europe so this is this is this is the background to this we really do not want fresh elections in germany but i don't i tend to think that it's going to be very very difficult to go about to get a new conservative. party chair into anglo-american only as the conservative chancellor and then the social democrats to get those free different forces working

together just the mantle has surprised us in the past and she missed the prizes again today but let's see the for example we've been talking a lot about these elections regional elections in has and bavaria where as you pointed out of both of the two big parties last support but let me let's go straight out of the cd headquarters i'm hearing reports that american is stepping out and we'll take you being like that as they go up there listen to the child ladies and gentlemen of the confront i'd like to welcome you to the press conference after the state elections in. with the. c.d.u. party chair and chancellor of the i'm going to mag and the deputy comes on again. the minister before the latest and gentleman. by the. facts of the elections of the city and has said are certainly disappointing they are. both for our friends. and for us on the national level and there's no

point. treating this state election as anything but is just a state alexion because it is clear that our friends in hester have certainly could have achieved much better results if they hadn't suffered from the negative effects of the. politics of a national level and this is most unfortunate i like to say this to focus on the v.a. state premier because the. christian democrats and green party in has to have done very well thus far and they. have done well both in terms of the actual work that they have done in the last two years but also in the style of two very different parties green party and christian democrats reeling together but this city was not able to convince the citizen sufficiently and so that it be absolutely clear there be no. misunderstandings i am not suggesting that the voters have any blame for

this at all not at all i want to just sank those voters who did cast their votes for us and show their trash that way and once again the c.d.u. has been the party that has had the strongest performance and it would seem that the christian democrats in the green party have been confirmed at least to some extent in their work and folk of bush will be entering into negotiations quickly to form a coalition but on a national level politically i after the elections in bavaria the elections in has the troubles that we've had in the city as you and the c.d.u. in the summer at the long time it took for us to form a coalition. after the f.t.p. green party and c.d.u. c.s.u. coalition negotiations fail we cannot go on with business as usual i feel we need to take

a mother everything right from the beginning. everything that we have done since the national elections we're going to look at again and if we have a break like this i see this as being an opportunity for the. big tent parties c.d.u. c.s.u. in s.p.d. to stop and think through what serves cohesion in this country and what does not serve it. because of the way i understand myself as a chancellor but also as the chair of the studio in germany for i believe that to mark christy lives from agreement supported by majorities in that those of us who are serving the state must do all we can to foster cohesion of the country and that we have to look again and again at what we can best to do justice to this position and the result of my thought process so far is something i want to share with you today. just as i spoke to you two years ago.

after thinking long and hard after the national elections i decided to run as a candidate for chancellor once again then. my sense now is that i cannot wait in sharing these thoughts with you until we have our. party congress is a meeting in december because every day counts when it comes to. responding to what happened yesterday because if the people in this country and has. not really you can actually see as as being responsible for everything and whether or not we are always to blame for everything but as the chancellor and the chair of the christian democrats i do luminous bear responsibility the buck stops here both for the successes and failures and so if people. look at.

the work that we have done in the first seven months of our work is the german government to respond this way i think they are sending as a clear signal that we cannot proceed to business as usual the things cannot continue the work that we have done though it has often been very good it has not been seen for what it is. and i think there are reasons. they're not just about communication it's not just a problem of communicating what we're doing here though it's also a problem of the way we work our culture of work it would be just as much joke in history if after six months. we would have to start with our work just because we weren't able to work so that people like what we're doing and so we need to focus on making them accept the work that we do if we look at some of the developments of recent weeks and months. and i have had my own critiques of the work that we have done and i have already expressed my dissatisfaction with that i have always wanted

to see and always hoped to ensure that the positions i. take on i will be able to carry with dignity and leave them with dignity one day but at the same time i know that in a political order you can't always plan all these things and things don't pan out the way you think you have to always weigh up the considerations weigh up freedom and responsibility and coordinate closely with your party as well as well as the coalition partners in government the coalition because whatever decision is taken in whatever direction it goes it will have sweeping impacts and it must be done in line with our conscience and we need to think it through very closely and i have thought this through very carefully and i would do that every day so what can i personally do to contribute to improving the situation for my party and for our country. for over eighteen years now i have been the chair of the christian

democrats in germany and this is been a position that i have tried to devote myself to and for thirteen years now i've been the chancellor of germany a position that has been an honor and a challenge at like every day by another thirtieth of may two thousand and five. i have when i spoke to you and told you that i would run as chancellor candidate i said at the time it was because i wanted to serve germany. serving germany and the people who live here in times of national and international difficulties this is been a challenge but also a summit is firing position and the fact that i have done it's been able to do it so long is something i'm grateful for i've often said i wasn't born as a chancellor and i've never forgotten that i wasn't born a chance at the same time i have a clear sense that the time has come to open

a new chapter because we are all. very much involved in the times of all that we are experiencing and i feel i must do something firstly in december at the studio party congress i will not be running again as chair of a cd use secondly this fourth parliamentary term will be my last parliamentary term as chancellor of germany in the national elections twenty twenty one i will not be running as a candidate for this year do you again and i will also not be running as a candidate for the lower house of one of the bundestag and i'd also like to note i will not be taking on any other political positions either thirdly for the rest of this parliamentary term i am prepared to continue to serve as chancellor and forth yes that means that to a large extent i am turning away from what i have always said which is that i believe that the chair of the party and the chancellorship should go together yes

this is a bit of a risk but i believe having weighed things up very carefully it is. a risk that i ought to take and want to take and if i wanted to run. as chancellor again then i wouldn't have taken this decision but i don't. this decision i am trying to contribution to making it possible for the german government to finally focus on good governance and that's what people are quite right in calling for and my. intention here is also based on the intention of the german government to carry out an interim evaluation of its work c.d.u. and c.s.u. and s.p.d. have agreed on such an interim evaluation and their coalition agreement and fifty my party this is the day you will be able to elect a new party chair as well as put together

a new party program and will be able to focus on the time that will come after i lay down my position i know that this is the first time such a thing has been done it's unprecedented but i do believe it offers far more opportunities than risks for the country for the german government and for my party what's already happened this conviction of is something that i have drawn from my personal experience in life because in the national elections two thousand and two edmund stoiber who was the c.d.u. chair then i left him the candidature of the chance to ship. and focused on the election with my whole heart and again with my whole heart today in my the last term of office in which i am chancellor i want to do what i can to achieve greater success for my party and take on the true meaning of responsibility for the party. yeah. judgment if

i may i'd like to make a comment on the decision of the party chair this is a real break this is a real change for the studio. i want to express my deep gratitude six to the chancellor and i'd like to express my respect. angle america has made a noble decision the right decision strong decision. and this decision gives the c.d.u. a new opportunity both in terms of content and in terms of style and we want to use it cleverly today is not a day to say goodbye to you as party chair but i think it's fair to express my gratitude. it's very moving i know that many of our colleagues in the party were very touched by this and after eighteen years of being

chair of our party this is no small matter so once again thank you. i respect this very strong decision that i'm going to macca has made and yesterday there were elections and has as you know and you reported on it yesterday and today so i don't think that i need to. say too much about about allow me to touch on the most important points the election campaign was one such as i've never experienced before in terms of the media and in terms of the many talks that i had with our citizens it was a state. election but it was almost a million a national election there was an awful lot of overlap with the issues that are very important here in the capital on the whole we can say that. as the

c.d.u. we were not able to get the number of votes that we had hoped to get. we got good marks for the work that we've done thus far in government there's a great deal of trust. that. is there but twenty seven percent for the past the city use everything else but satisfactory these are drastic losses and . this is painful but it is a cause for humility we will not just be ignoring it and continue on with business as usual and of course i must be to regain the trust of our voters. are a must to be strongest party once again we managed to do that which means we now have the mandate once again to lead and to put together a state assembly government you'll know the results. has always had quite tight results in the elections traditionally and this was the case here i think it was

four minutes past two in the morning when we had the last vote counted so that now we can continue with the. coalition that we have now that there are other options and we will look into those as well i'm planning to spend this afternoon. you've been watching live coverage coming from the c.d.u. headquarters here in berlin we were just listening to follow the fear he's a state premier of the state of where elections took place yesterday on sunday and before that we heard chancellor angela merkel confirming the announcements we've been expecting all day for analysis let me turn to our senior correspondent peter craven peter we heard of your talk about this being a turning point for the c.d.u. party observers from the c.d.u. and he was referring to chancellor angela merkel's decision.