Angela Merkel has announced she will run for a fourth term as German chancellor in a crucial national election next September, insisting the decision had not been easy to make because of the complex challenges she will face and “absurd” expectations Germany could take a world leadership role when Barack Obama leaves office.

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“I have spent an unending amount of time contemplating this, as to stand as a candidate for a fourth time after 11 years in power is anything other than a trivial decision, neither for the country, for the party, nor for me,” Merkel told a press conference in Berlin on Sunday night in what was a much-anticipated announcement.

She said just as when she first took up the post in 2005, she wanted to serve Germany. “Ever since then I have tried to orientate myself according to this principle.”

The 62-year-old is considered globally as the most experienced and longest-serving leader of the western world. She will be looked to for answers to may current challenges, including how to shape relations with Europe and the United States under Donald Trump, how the European Union will manage a Brexit and dealing with Russian aggression.

The continuing influx of refugees into Europe as well as the ongoing euro crisis are among the major issues that would dominate her next term.

Appearing relaxed but typically self-contained, Merkel said the decision would depend on the state of her health but assured her audience she felt “wide awake and full of ideas”.

But Merkel said it was “grotesque and absurd” that a single person should be expected to carry the burden of leadership alone, in a nod to those who have described Merkel variously, following the election of Trump, as the liberal west’s last defender.

Listing her main challenges, Merkel said: “The European Union is currently under great strain, with the euro crisis, with the refugee question, and following the decision of the United Kingdom to want to leave the EU, and with a situation in the world which, to put it delicately, needs to focus itself anew following the elections in America and also regarding the relationship to Russia.”

Under the circumstances she said she felt ready to run again for the German chancellery, but added: “But I have said very clearly, all that which is connected to the [current situation in the world] especially after the elections in America, that I’m expected to deal with, it’s very grounding, but I feel it very strongly as grotesque and downright absurd.

“No person, no person alone, even with a great deal of experience can face the things in Germany, in Europe, in the world ... certainly not a chancellor of Germany.”

She said efforts to solve problems had to be made by countries’ leaders who recognised the common challenges and worked together to tackle them.

Despite the widespread expectation that Merkel would take the plunge, she told other leaders of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who met in Berlin on Sunday to prepare for their annual party conference in December: “I spent hours and hours wrestling with myself, but took the decision to stand again. The country and the CDU have given me a lot. I would like to give that back – even in what will not be an easy election campaign.”

She said she expected the election to be a tough one, due to the rise of the populist right in Germany, in the form of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), and at a time of great polarisation. She said she expected tough fight in the run-up to the election, but “a fight does not have to mean hate”. Her goal she said, was to “keep Germany together”.

Merkel told party colleagues she had waited for the right moment before announcing her decision, which was widely interpreted as a desire to ensure her popularity ratings, which took a battering over her decision in the late summer of 2015 to allow about 900,000 migrants into Germany, had recovered sufficiently so she would have the backing of her party.

German voters appear in favour of her standing again. A poll carried out by the Emnid institute for the tabloid Bild am Sonntag, showed that 55% of Germans supported her standing again, while 39% opposed it.

Merkel confirmed she was prepared to govern for a further full four-year term amid speculation she might aim to secure a win for her party but then bow out. She would be 67 by end of the next legislative period.

Asked how she had come to her decision, and whether it was directly made in the light of the US election result, she said with a smile: “With me it’s the case that I need a long time and the decisions are made late. But then I stick to them.”

Obama had said on Thursday during a visit to Berlin that Merkel, a pastor’s daughter who grew up in communist East Germany, would face “big burdens” if she were to continue, but he said she was “outstanding” and “tough” and would get his support if he were German.

A poll last Thursday showed that Merkel’s CDU would secure 32% of the vote if the election were held now, with the Social Democrats on around 23%, and the anti-immigrant AfD on 12% and on track to enter the Bundestag for the first time.