Germany’s head of state, 76-year-old President Joachim Gauck, said Monday he won’t seek a second term in 2017 because due to his age.
Gauck told reporters at his office in Berlin he would complete his five-year term but didn’t feel he was up to another because “the years between 77 and 82 are different than those that I’m in right now.”
“Until the end of my term, I will seriously and happily fulfill my duties,” he said.
Germany’s president performs a largely ceremonial role that has little executive power, but is considered an important moral authority. Gauck, a former East German pro-democracy activist with no political affiliation, won wide backing from Germany’s mainstream parties when elected by lawmakers in 2012.
A new president will be chosen in February, an awkward time for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces national elections later in 2017.
With no obvious successor for Gauck, the search for a candidate seems likely to be complicated as factions in Merkel’s coalition government seek their own nominee.
AP
