Why did Angela Merkel not run for chancellor in Germany’s 2002 election?

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“Queen of Europe” — Angela Merkel Angela Merkel, the first woman to serve as chancellor of Germany, 2012.

Although Angela Merkel had hoped to stand as a candidate for chancellor in the 2002 German federal election, she did not run because a majority of her party expressed a preference for Edmund Stoiber, the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).12

Consequently, Stoiber became the conservative candidate for the chancellorship, while Merkel continued her role as the leader of the CDU. Following the narrow defeat of the CDU-CSU coalition in the September 2002 election, Merkel assumed the position of leader of the opposition.12