German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to retire in 2021

The former Christian Social Union leader, who turns 70 in July, says 50 years in politics are enough.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

May 30, 2019 1:21 pm CET

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and former leader of Angela Merkel’s Bavarian ally party will not run again in the 2021 federal parliamentary election, he said in an interview with the German news agency DPA.

Seehofer, whose spat with the German Chancellor over migration last year threatened to bring down the government, said that 50 years in politics are enough. He turns 70 in July.

He stepped down from the helm of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party in late 2018, after the party suffered its worst election result since 1950 in Bavarian state elections.

In his push for tight rules for people seeking asylum in Germany, Seehofer tried to coordinate with his Italian counterpart Matteo Salvini in 2018. But their relationship appears to have cooled off, according to the DPA report, after Salvini met with the representatives of the right-wing AfD party recently. This made political agreements with Salvini “no longer possible” for Seehofer, he told the DPA.

Talking about the future of Merkel’s successor at the helm of the Christian Democratic Union party, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Seehofer said that he sees no reason why the current arrangement could not work, “especially as Angela Merkel and the CDU chairperson understand each other well obviously.”

Merkel earlier this week dismissed a media report that claimed she has decided Kramp-Karrenbauer is not up to succeeding her as German chancellor.