ITAHARI: SEPT. 25 – Angela Merkel is stepping down as German chancellor after 16 years in power, bringing an end to a political career that has spanned more than three decades.
It is a career documented in pictures at every turn: from visiting fishermen during her earliest campaigns, to talks at the White House, and everything in between.
PHOTOS:-
23 September 2021: Mrs Merkel’s tenure has been one of highs and lows but she will be remembered for her pragmatic approach and ability to forge consensusSummer 1989: Mrs Merkel (pictured far right) with Malgorzata Jeziorska and future husband Joachim Sauer at a university summer school for chemistry in PolandNovember 1990: By the next year, she was campaigning in the first German federal election to be held since the country was reunifiedJanuary 1994: Mrs Merkel was made minister for the environment – which appears to have meant showing off how you recycle wrapping paperMarch 1995: Mrs Merkel laughs with fellow minister Horst Seehofer, during a cabinet meetingMarch 2000: Mrs Merkel was chosen to lead the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) in 2000July 2005: Five years later, she was back on the campaign trail (pictured) – which would lead to her election as Germany’s first female chancellorJune 2007: Despite it being the 21st Century, politics is still dominated by men, so Mrs Merkel – here with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, US President George W Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair – was often the lone female faceApril 2009: Mrs Merkel became a symbol of fiscal austerity in the years which followed the financial crashApril 2011: Hillary Clinton, then US secretary of state, and Mrs Merkel in BerlinJune 2015: Mrs Merkel with then-President Barack Obama, after a G7 summit session in southern Germany. “You have been a trusted partner throughout my entire presidency – longer than any world leader,” the US leader told her a year laterSeptember 2015: The chancellor’s decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees in 2015 divided the country. Pictured: Refugees making their way through HungaryApril 2018: It also put her on a collision course with US President Donald TrumpJune 2018: Migration was not the only issue on which they would clash. North Korea, Iran and trade were also contentious and led to moments like this at the G7 in Canada2020/21: As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, Mrs Merkel won praise for her early handling of the outbreak; some said her science background helped
(All pictures, unless specified, are AFP or Getty Images)
