BERLIN: German President Joachim Gauck said on Monday that he would not stand for a second term, creating a political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of an election year. The popular Gauck, 76, who has held the largely ceremonial post of head of state since 2012, made the announcement at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, citing his advanced age. “I’m grateful to be doing fine,” he said, after speculation about his health concerns. “At the same time, I am aware that the life phase between 77 and 82 is a different one than the one I am in now. I cannot guarantee that I would have the same energy and vitality for another five-year term.” Gauck, a charismatic Protestant pastor, rose to prominence as a human rights activist in communist East Germany and was instrumental in the movement which helped topple the Berlin Wall in 1989. His decision not to run for a second mandate complicates the political equation for Merkel, who will have to fill the job just as campaigning for the general election, expected to be held in September 2017, kicks off. “The search for a successor will start the general election campaign more than 15 months before the poll — a conflict that the chancellor would have preferred to avoid,” Spiegel Online news website said. Even before Gauck’s announcement, speculation about who would replace him was fervent, although commentators expressed regret about the exit of a towering figure of German postwar history.