Merkel to serve full term if she wins election

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will serve her full term in office if she wins September’s general election, her spokesman said Monday. The comments by Steffen Seibert follow the release of a new book about the chancellor, which claims she told close supporters she planned to step down in the middle of 2015. Merkel turns 61 in July 2015, German News Agency (DPA) reported. In his book, Nikolaus Blome, a senior journalist with the tabloid Bild, writes that Merkel believes German leaders should step down after a decade in office. Merkel has been chancellor since November 2005. Seibert told a regular government briefing that Merkel would be staying in office for “the full legislative period,” which lasts four years.