Roland Koch, the conservative premier of the German state of Hesse, said on Tuesday he would step down this summer and leave politics.
The 52-year-old Christian Democrat (CDU) said he would stay in office until August 31.
"I specifically picked out this point in time," he said at a press conference in the state capital Wiesbaden. "Politics is a fascinating part of of my life, but politics isn't my life".
Though many were caught off guard by the announcement, Koch said Chancellor Angela Merkel bad been aware of his plans, if not the exact timing of his departure, for the past year.
Koch said he planned to seek work in the business sector, but would only decide what position to pursue after leaving office. Besides resigning as state premier, Koch will also give up his leadership of the Hessian Christian Democrats and his deputy chairman position of the national CDU.
"That's a huge loss for the CDU, the state of Hesse and the federal government," Michael Meister, a Hessian Christian Democratic MP, told the website of Der Spiegel magazine. He called Koch a "great politician with unusually clear policy positions". Link
