German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday announced that she will run for a fourth term in 2017. She said the decision was “anything but trivial” for her country, the Christian Democratic Party and herself, BBC reported.

She made the announcement after meeting party leaders on Sunday. She will be challenged by the populist, right-wing AfD (Alternative for Germany) party. She said she was expecting a challenge form both the right and the left sections of the political spectrum. The 62-year-old scientist has served 11 years as the chancellor of the country. She is also the first woman to hold the post.

Merkel has been criticised in the past for her decision to take in thousands of refugees and migrants. She had said that the European Union cannot allow Greece to plunge into “chaos” by shutting European borders to refugees. She had also criticised people who protested against her decision. She had called the actions of protestors who shouted abuse at a bus full of refugees “repulsive” and “unjustifiable” in February 2016.

In 2015, Germany alone took in more than one million asylum seekers, fleeing from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.