Merkel concludes chapter in German and European history

When Angela Merkel arrived at the German Chancellery in 2005 has already gone down in history, for being a woman and for being born in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Four legislatures later, and with other moments in history behind him, he will leave the baton after elections that usher in a new era, both for Germany and for Europe.

Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954. Daughter of a Protestant pastor and an English teacher, she moved as a child to Quitzow, East Germany. His vocation first led him to a scientific career, but once the Berlin Wall fell, he joined a group called Democratic Dawn, an ally of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

With Helmut Kohl for ally, she obtained in a few months a promotion which will lead her to be Minister for Women and Youth in the first government of the new united Germany, before continuing to progress in the Federal Executive and in the CDU. and to end up abandoning his mentor in 1999 following a donation scandal.

This is how she came to head the CDU, even if in 2002 it was not she who ran for chancellor of the conservative bloc, but the leader of the Christian-Social Union ( CSU), Edmund Stoiber, who will end up losing in the legislative elections. Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder.

Merkel’s big opportunity came in 2005, with an electoral victory that gave way to 16 years of uninterrupted power, until October 2018, after poor electoral results at the regional level, she announced that she would not stand for re-election. to the leadership of the CDU and, by extension, that the current one would be his last term.

For the first time since World War II, a sitting chancellor resigned to run for reelection, placing the CDU in a checkered succession. At first, his natural replacement, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, took the reins, but the experience did not bear fruit after a controversial collusion with the far right in Thuringia.

The party then embarked on a long journey that ended up taking Armin Laschet, who started the campaign as the frontrunner to lead the government and ended it without guarantees, with polls indicating a “surprise” from the Social Democratic Party ( SPD). The decline of the CDU in the polls prompted Merkel to engage in messages against the SPD, her current coalition partner, in this latter part of the campaign.

MERKEL PROFILE

Merkel was a race without fanfare, marked by a serious and centrist profile that the Chancellor kept motionless as around her populist leaders began to emerge or who sought a more friendly image towards the citizens. Conservative, but not as conservative as you might expect in some areas.

Yes, it was economically at a key moment. She will be remembered at European level for having been the main promoter of austerity in the way out of the 2008 financial crisis, but also for her firm defense of the euro, with a particularly famous phrase: “If the euro fails, Europe fails.”

On the social level, one of its main adherents is the open door policy it adopted in 2015 during the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe, as well as having assumed the need to fight against climate change with public policies.

The pandemic has marked its final year and a half, however, with a roller coaster of popularity and criticism that has grown in step with contagions and restrictions. In March 2021, she was forced to reverse the so-called “emergency brake” to contain the virus after days of chaos and improvisation.

Analysts say her great political ability is to read the feelings of citizens above political considerations and to look to the long term. Indeed, its policy of welcoming migrants has led to an unprecedented promotion of Alternative for Germany (AfD), which however now suffers from a downward trend in voting intentions.

Merkel has lived with four presidents of the United States and as many French heads of state, a country with the latter with which she has forged alliances on the fringes of ideologies in search of a vision, and a defense, common to the European Union. . Only the Russian Vladimir Putin followed him and it is precisely with him that Merkel lived the main ups and downs in Europe.

WITHOUT EFFORTS

Perhaps because of the length of her farewells, almost two years since she announced her departure, or because of her special personality, Merkel leaves the front line without fanfare, despite the fact that the german press has successively devoted the headlines to the chancellor’s last time in recent months.

On September 7, he ran for the last time in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, and he will have a few more dismissals. Unsurprisingly, he will remain interim chancellor until a new government is formed and it should be remembered that after the 2017 elections it took six months to reach consensus on a majority.

And after that? Merkel’s name has been used in recent years for virtually every relevant post in Europe, but her political potential makes it difficult for her to seek accommodation in a new high-level post, as President of Germany or as President of the Council. European.

Asked about her future at her last press conference, she simply said: “I will know what to do with my time.”

(with EP information)

KEEP READING: