German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that she will step down as head of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and will not seek re-election as chancellor in 2021. That move, while understandable given her coalition's recent election defeats, renders her a lame duck. German politics is likely to be weakened, and the world will lose a leader and a champion of liberal values at the very time that such leadership is needed most.

Merkel grew up in East Germany, and taught chemistry until she entered politics when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. She joined the CDU when it merged with an East German party and was elected to the Bundestag in the first united federal German elections in 1990. She was tapped for duty in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Helmut Kohl, and became secretary-general of the CDU when it lost power in 1998, and head of the party two years later. She led the party to victory over the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP) in national elections in 2005 and became chancellor that year. She has governed Germany ever since, making her the longest-serving leader in the European Union. Even more important than the length of her tenure has been her policies: She is a stalwart defender of liberal values, European solidarity and the rule of law. As President Donald Trump retreats from many long-held positions of the United States, many observers now refer to Merkel as the real "leader of the free world."

Hers has not been an easy term in office. She has dealt with the financial crisis, the Greek crisis, Brexit, Russian President Vladimir Putin's muscle flexing on Europe's eastern borders, and Trump's bashing of NATO and the European Union. She surmounted most of them and those victories propelled her to a series of election wins.