Balloons depicting leaders of the G7 countries are inflated in Garmisch-Partenkirchen June 7, 2015. Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations meet on Sunday in the Bavarian Alps for a summit overshadowed by Greece's debt crisis and ongoing violence in Ukraine. Leaders are (L-R) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Francoise Hollande, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters
As devoid of successors as she is of challengers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will in all likelihood seek another term in next year’s federal elections. In spite of her party’s lackluster performance in regional polls this year, Merkel will win again. Her current coalition partners, the Social Democrats, have been unable to come up with a potential challenger, and the Greens are more likely to aim for sharing power with her than risk antagonizing her. By the end of that next term, Merkel will have been in office for 17 years, eclipsing even West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and
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