Germany's Merkel turns down U.N. job offer

FILE PHOTO: Germany's outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a session of the German lower house of parliament Bundestag to elect a new chancellor, in Berlin, Germany, December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has turned down the offer of a job at the United Nations, her office said on Wednesday, a month after she stepped down as Europe's most powerful politician after 16 years at the helm.

Merkel, 67, called U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week to thank him for the job he had offered her in a letter and to tell him she would not accept it, the office said, without elaborating.