Merkel says populism won't solve world's problems

German Chancellor Angela Merkel during news conference at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that openness, not populism, polarisation or isolation, was the answer to the world's challenges of globalisation and digitalisation.

"I think that, a quarter of a century after German unification, after the end of the Cold War, a new historical era will perhaps be replaced by another one," Merkel said in a speech to church leaders in Wuerzburg.