German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, got backing from EU Budget Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, on Tuesday to serve out her full term as German chancellor for the next three years.

Merkel, chancellor for nearly 13 years, said on Monday she would give up the leadership of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

She said she would not run again for parliament or another term as chancellor after the upcoming federal elections in 2021.

“We in Brussels want the chancellor to complete her three years,” Oettinger, a CDU colleague of Merkel, said in an interview with German broadcaster SWR on Tuesday.

Oettinger said that she enjoys trust “from Sophia to Lisbon, from Dublin to Athens.”

She warned that Merkel’s successor should not play a disruptive role, saying “anyone who thinks he can start the first day by working against her is doing a poor job as new party leader.”

Three candidates have come forward to replace Merkel as party chair, Merkel and party sources said.

The candidates are: Jens Spahn, Germany’s current health minister also a Merkel critic; Friedrich Merz, the former head of the conservative bloc in the Bundestag; and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU Secretary-General. (Reuters/NAN)