Merkel will Run for a Fourth Term as German Chancellor

Angela Merkel’s decision to run for a fourth term as German chancellor coincided with the release of a poll showing that 55 percent of the electorate support this decision, with stability seen as the key attribute the long-standing leader would bring to a renewed stint in office.

Proponents of the existing liberal order in Europe are looking to Merkel’s experience and perceived strength as a crucial ballast in the face of the rising tide of populism sweeping Western democracies and seen as posing a challenge to long-standing political structures and certain values underpinning them.

According to Josef Janning, senior policy fellow and head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office, “A fourth Merkel term will signal continuity above everything else.”

“In fact, Merkel will become even more active internationally – all German chancellors have followed that pattern in the later years of their time in office,” he explained in emailed comments to CNBC.

Yet the outcome of a pair of upcoming votes will be critical in determining how much support she has from other core European Union (EU) leaders. Italy is set to decide on December 4 whether to back its incumbent Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who in seeking power to make constitutional reforms has staked his leadership on a referendum. If Renzi is compelled to step aside, the door opens more widely for the anti-establishment Five Star Movement to potentially assume power at the next election.

via CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza