MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Thomas Oppermann, the vice president of the German parliament, proposed to reduce the country's chancellor's term of office to eight or 10 consecutive years, local media reported on Monday.
"I am in favor of limiting the chancellor's term of office to eight or 10 years… [After 10 years in office] you can hardly find new momentum or react to it in accordance with the democratic principles," Opperman was quoted as saying by the Welt newspaper.
"I wish [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel with all my heart to find the right moment for her departure from office during this term of office," Opperman added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in office for 12 years already. She was first elected to the post on November 22, 2005, which made her the first woman to take up the post of the federal chancellor in the country's history. Merkel was then re-elected in 2009 and 2013.
A recent poll revealed that forty percent of the Germans would like Angela Merkel to remain chancellor if a new election takes place, while one percent more people feel that she should step down in case of a repeat vote.
