عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Germany Sets Date for Election Determining Merkel Successor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, casts her vote after the debate about Germany's budget 2021, at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 8, 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, casts her vote after the debate about Germany's budget 2021, at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 8, 2020.
TT
20
TT

Germany Sets Date for Election Determining Merkel Successor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, casts her vote after the debate about Germany's budget 2021, at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 8, 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, casts her vote after the debate about Germany's budget 2021, at the parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Dec. 8, 2020.

Germany's next parliamentary election, which will determine the country's new leader after Chancellor Angela Merkel's long rule, will be held on Sept. 26, 2021.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's office said Wednesday that the head of state set the date in line with a recommendation from the government. It will be post-World War II Germany’s 20th parliamentary election.

Germany holds elections every four years. The lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, elects the chancellor. That may not happen until well after the election, because the process of putting together a governing coalition can be lengthy. After the 2017 election, it was nearly six months before Merkel was sworn in for her fourth term — a record.

Merkel has been chancellor since 2005. She said more than two years ago that she wouldn't seek a fifth term, and has repeatedly made clear that she won't change her mind.

At present, it's hard to guess who will succeed her, and much will depend on whom the leading parties nominate as their candidates for chancellor.

Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union, part of a conservative bloc that is well ahead in polls thanks in part to positive reviews of her management of the coronavirus pandemic, plans to choose a new leader in January. That person will likely, but not necessarily, be nominated to run for chancellor.

The center-left Social Democrats, who provided three of Germany's eight post-war chancellors, have chosen Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as their candidate.

But the party, now the junior partner in Merkel's governing coalition, is currently very weak in polls. Its support is lower than that of the environmentalist Greens, who are likely to make their first run for the chancellery but have yet to nominate a contender.

Voters will elect at least 598 lawmakers to the Bundestag. The number may be considerably higher because of Germany's complex electoral system, which is based on proportional representation but also sees voters choose directly elected local representatives. The current Bundestag has 709 members.

Most Viewed

 
World

Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
TT
20
TT

Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.