I think calling Merkel’s time in office a “reign of failure” is to slightly over-egg the pudding, but what I can say without any reservation is that Angela Merkel is one of the most overrated politicians of all time. At least in Europe. And I think I can safely say that this opinion is one that I share with a great many Germans. “The best argument for limiting the Chancellor’s tenure to two terms”, “the worst Chancellor Germany has ever had”, and “the most overrated Angela of all time” are just a couple of the comments I’ve seen in the past weeks in German media. Not exactly a glowing review.
Merkel is far, far more popular and enjoys more respect abroad than at home. Her staying power and longevity has created continuity and a level of stability that a lot of people (at home and abroad) treasure. A bit like the Queen. Except that Merkel had it within her power to make much more impactful decisions than the British monarch…and unfortunately a lot of them were the wrong ones. Or were postponed for so long that damage was done.
Germany has enjoyed enormous benefits from the euro, true. However – whenever some bill has to be paid in the EU then Germany is usually the one to step up to the plate first – so there’s some kind of equaliser for the euro advantages. However, this, in turn, generates frustration among the population who already have to shoulder some of the highest rates of tax in Europe (if not the world), face ever-rising living costs – and then have to watch their money being spent elsewhere. Many feel that Merkel has been the architect of a kind of politics that serves everyone except people in Germany.
Germans will also have to face up to the fact that, with the euro, having enjoyed “eine doppelte Portion, gratis” (“a double portion, for free”, i.e. a disproportionate/unfair advantage) has come with a creeping price. My understanding of the Target2 claims is that the imbalance which has been created within the system has now trapped Germany within it. The only way forward is a full fiscal union (and the transfer union that goes with it).
Yes, although I think previously, there has always been some kind of unspoken assumption that there was still a way to reverse out of the project. That avenue is all but closed off – if not in fact, then for all practical purposes as it would just cause so much damage.
Full fiscal union is the French (and European Commission) plan, so that Germany can be made to subsidise the debts of the rest of the European Union for ever. Germany itself wants to return to the original Maastricht plan to enforce budget balance on all eurozone members so that such subsidies are unnecessary. But in practice it’s had to allow the European Central Bank to pay for the debts of Italy etc. with printed money so that those countries don’t drop out of the eurozone. Faced with such dilemmas you wonder what scope is left for Germany to run a coherent national policy or for its leaders to ‘succeed’. But isn’t that what ‘ever closer union’ is supposed to mean?
Germany’s political stability for good or bad is down to the electoral system that virtually denies any party a majority and to the willingness of the SDP and CDU/CSU to form coalitions. British politics would be very different if there was a serious possibility of the Tories and Labour forming coalitions.
Very true. In terms of longevity Frau Markel may be comparable with our dear Queen, but in all other respects she is more like Theresa May.
Bruno Lucy
2 years ago
At long last……some dares speaking about the elephant that has been squatting the room for 16 years !!!!
How this woman could be branded the most powerful woman in the world is just baffling. The Germans love her for 2 reasons.
1/ She’s done what they love best : change nothing
2/ The Eurozone is a distorting mirror whose effect is to make German exports permanently cheaper than they should be and those of weaker economies more expensive. Add to that the trade barriers erected around the Single Market (but removed within it) and German exporters can hardly fail. ( direct quote from this article )
Has anyone forgotten how she and Wolfgang Schäuble were ready to throw the Greeks out of the eurozone in 2008 ? How is taking the brunt of the ongoing refugee crisis ? The Greeks…..!!! Had she had her way on this one, this would have unleashed a catastrophe of mammoth proportions.
The refugee crisis was just an opportunistic move set to provide cheap labour in a country with an ageing population. You can drive through villages in the Black Forest where precision industries are quartered to see the posters advertising “Atzubis” positions ……or apprentices wanted.
Remember New Year’s in Cologne ?? That’s when Germans finally started to smell the coffee. How many people died due to attacks perpetrated by so called refugees ?
Die Welt published a very good editorial last Tuesday about the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris where 130 people where shot…….130 !!! Quite a few of the perpetrators came through the open borders thanks to Frau Merkel and watching the french news this morning and hearing what a lawyer was referring to as the Tchernobyl effect ( people dying long after the attack……..relatives suddenly dying of cancer etc….) made my blood boil.
Wir shaffen das !!
One of the coming presidential run candidate here in France, Valerie Pecresse is selling her campaign saying “ I am a mix of Margareth Thatcher and Angela Merkel”
HELP !!!
Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes in her book “Prey” how the women living in Germany saw their rights and freedoms diminished thanks to the presence of the “rapefugees”
Jorge Espinha
2 years ago
I’m glad someone sees Frau Merkel for what she is. The worst German Chancellor since the Austrian with the ridiculous moustache.
Peter LR
2 years ago
Yes, closing down nuclear power was one of her most egregious acts. Since when are there tsunamis in the Baltic? It gives Germany yet more excuses to take economic advantage over those countries going to zero coal.
Jorge Espinha
2 years ago
I just want to add one thing. I’m a citizen of the “P” in pigs. Germany had nothing to do with our troubles. From the very beginning we, in Portugal went for the flashy “big public works” policy instead of preparing the country for a transition into a modern economy. The money from Europe was used to buy election victories. We are now one of the countries in the world with more km of highway per capita. When the crisis hit us we were in stagnation for 20 years. And all through this process, we had people inside our country warning us this wasn’t the way to go. I believe the same happened in Spain and Greece (Italy is odd, it combines first-rate industry with a byzantine political system). So, Germany probably imposed a financial straight jacket on the rest of the Union but it isn’t their fault that we are dysfunctional
Jon Redman
2 years ago
I can’t explain why, but I always feel as though Angela would…bleed acid.
Can anyone confirm or deny?
furma371
2 years ago
Merkel is also the “Kanzlerin” who failed to invest in infrastructures: bridges, roads, rails and schools. Those 16 years of stability have some bitter material and social consequences for the successor. So that Germany that first elected Angela Merkel is no more. Merkel definitely contributed to change the World. I am not sure it was for the better.
Last edited 2 years ago by furma371
stefan filipkiewicz
2 years ago
There is no doubt that Angela’s legacy is mixed; anyone who has been in power for 16 years will have had pluses and minuses.
I’m a bit disappointed in the article as much of it is context-free.
1) Brexit: Cannot just be dumped on Merkel. Cameron was always lukewarm over Europe. He was the one who withdrew the Conservatives from the centrist coalition in the European Parliament. When he went to Europe pre-referendum, I believe he was over cocky that he would win i.e. no sense of urgency and no concrete proposals. He could easily have requested a pause in freedom of movement, and that would have been allowed. The other European leaders also need to accept responsibility.
And the UK remain campaign was rubbish.
2) Refugees: Good point from Richard. Remember that Germany accepted 12M refugees at the end of WWII. German-speaking (supposedly) but destitute; women, children, the old; A huge number of able-bodied men were in POW camps and remained there for years.
Regarding asylum-seekers: There was a recent discussion involving Douglas Murray and Yannis Varoufakis; DM rabbited on about refugees/asylum-seekers;VF swotted that away in about 20 seconds: Greece, a fraction the size and wealth of Germany had accepted 1M Albanian refugees 20 years ago and they were largely assimilated.
3) Defence: Germany, understandably, has a horror of its militarist past. Not sure how you can justify a reasonable level of spending to the electorate on that basis. But it did/does need to be done. So, Angela not good but not easy.
4) Industry/Exports: Germany certainly benefits from an undervalued euro but do do all the other euro one countries. Interesting point about Peugeot’s/China: Britain had the same problem: 1960’s: the British car industry dominated European markets; by the 1970’s, collapse: poor value, poor quality, underinvestment. Germany has euro advantages but it has kept up its development and investment.
5) Infrastructure: Undoubtedly a black mark. A stitch in time…
6) Nuclear Power/Coal: Again a black mark. But context: Germany has always had a strong anti-nuclear movement, the Greens. Of all the European countries, only France has a major commitment to nuclear and they don’t have a huge amount of coal let alone oil/gas: i.e. Germany panicked and they had an alternative.
7) Nordstrom’s: Germany has a tradition of dealing with the Soviet Union since the 70’s, realpolitik, and the SU has morphed into Russia. I do believe a bad decision but there is context.
8) PIIGS: Germany went through a major industrial upheaval in the early 2000’s: they were not competitive. Understandably, human nature is “we went through tough times and came out the other side, why can’t they?”.
Each of the trashed countries had built up their own store of problems: Ireland/Spain – speculative property booms; Greece: low tax take, corruption, fiddled their budget numbers to get into the euro, then massive borrowing to no good effect; Portugal: I hadn’t known about the comment above, interesting; Italy: disfunctional, Italians themselves are often the first to rue the Risorgimento.
Even allowing for the above, Germany’s response was tin-eared and largely to protect their own loans; why try to get Greece to pay back money which it just didn’t/doesn’t have?
Just default and start again; moral hazard? And then be more cautious about lending in future.
9) Trashing coalition partners: Done by the voters. That’s what happens at election time: each party tries to steal voters from their erstwhile partners.
The criticism from the article completely misunderstands how that system works.
10) Laschet: Only one of a completely underwhelming set of candidates; and that goes for all the parties. And he was chosen by the party, his main rival hemmed and hawed for ages about whether he would actually run or not.
« 2) Refugees: Good point from Richard. Remember that Germany accepted 12M refugees at the end of WWII. German-speaking (supposedly) but destitute; women, children, the old; A huge number of able-bodied men were in POW camps and remained there for years. Regarding asylum-seekers: There was a recent discussion involving Douglas Murray and Yannis Varoufakis; DM rabbited on about refugees/asylum-seekers;VF swotted that away in about 20 seconds: Greece, a fraction the size and wealth of Germany had accepted 1M Albanian refugees 20 years ago and they were largely assimilated. »
can’t see much similarities with the above mentioned refugees profiles and the largely almost impossible to assimilate Muslims. Merkel put her foot into her mouth years ago saying « Islam gehört su Deutschland » ……” Islam belongs to Germany”……never heard so much tosh in my entire life !
Albanians in Greece ?? Similar to Belgians in France…..they are neighbours !!!
You should read Sebastian Kurtz interview in Die Welt. He doesn’t want to see one Afghan refugee in Austria and he is right. They have enormous problems with that demographic that represents one of the highest population / Total population in Austria. Added to that the rape and murder of a 13 years old girl by 3 Afghan refugees…… no one in Europe wants a repeat of 2015.
Same in Sweden, same in Denmark.
WW2 refugees were largely German speaking and from the area. In 2015 Merkel opened a can of worms that is leaking plenty since then.
Yes, by all means, Germany did its bit……but they still made quality products that happened to be overpriced….once the Euro allowed the DM to be devalued Schröder came along and sent people into Hartz 4……everything became peachy for …….older Germans….I mean by that those who had enough money…..not the others forced to work penny pinching jobs into their 70’s…..
I am not sure all of this is to be regarded has a legacy worth celebrating.
The last point is the best. After having scrapped nuclear energy in a mob driven knee jerk reaction…….she now wants to have gas seen cleaner than nuclear energy, all the while using coal energy until 2035……Nordstream….thank you very much. And this farce is of course relayed in Brussels by ex Waffen Uschi …..aka von der Leyen who just parrots what she’s been told to by the boss in Berlin.
Last edited 2 years ago by Bruno Lucy
Richard Slack
2 years ago
It is typical for most commentaries on Frau Merkel to pose an unflattering picture of her as part of the process. This is easy amnd not inevititable, I don’t think she has ever spent much time on worrying about her appearance let alone any kind of personal image, good for her! I can think of no recent British PM who would do their own shopping and actually enjoy being at football matches or Wagner Operas.
A lot of this piece dwells on the fact that she has been Chancellor of coalition governments. Well well! apart from a brief time ine the 1950s under Chancellor Adenaur, all German Governments are coalitions, the system is devised practically to ensure this and it has served the German people well. It compares with what we have in this country where 42% of the vote gives 100% of the power to a man aiming, blatantly, to removing any channels of opposition at all.
The Euro was well in place before Merkel came into power. The Germans were luke-warm at best for the Euro, after all they already had a European Currency, the Deutschmark which was welcome wherever they chose to spend it. However they went along with it to demonstrate their commitment to Europe. It is hardly the fault of Germany that the Euro has worked exactly as it was predicted it would.
I doubt if she ever took Cameron seriously. If Cameron had the courage of his undoubted pro-Europe pro-EU convictions he should have worked with the main-stream European right such as Merkel to rebuild the institution from within, replacing the France/Germany axis. It is how the EU and its predecessors have always worked. But he remained scared of Farage.
As far as the refugee crisis goes, it has been a feature of German life since the war to accomodate refugees. We will see in the longer term if her instincts were correct.
Yes, they were lukewarm in adopting the Euro which in fact was a Deutsch Mark devaluation in disguise. The Germans fell for it and in the end, like the article said, benefited them plenty.
We french basically manufacture crap products…..cars nobody buys ….pots and pans ….apart from luxury products. The euro has made “ our stuff” a lot more expensive than it should. I remember travelling to Bejin in the early 90’s…….all cabs were……Peugeot. Have a look today. No Chinese would dare driving a Peugeot unless he wants to be a social outcast. Our trade balance is an abyss while Germany piggy bank is overflowing…..not even investing in new infrastructure…….that’s when being “ sparsam” becomes neurotic.
So ? Win win for Germany on all accounts……even military. It’s usually the French and the Brits who go down south to be shot at.
So ? She goes shopping to the supermarket ? Big fantastic deal ! I had diner a few tables away from the swedish Prime minister a few months ago. No one praises him in Sweden for going to the restaurant…..and it was nothing swanky….just handy a few blocks away from parliament.
Pretty scary to think that Angela Merkel’s achievement is doing her own shopping.
I am not holding my breath when it comes to the successor……Laschet would burst laughing at his own funeral and Scholz looks like a bookkeeper……mhmmm…..on second thought….he is a book keeper.
I think calling Merkel’s time in office a “reign of failure” is to slightly over-egg the pudding, but what I can say without any reservation is that Angela Merkel is one of the most overrated politicians of all time. At least in Europe. And I think I can safely say that this opinion is one that I share with a great many Germans. “The best argument for limiting the Chancellor’s tenure to two terms”, “the worst Chancellor Germany has ever had”, and “the most overrated Angela of all time” are just a couple of the comments I’ve seen in the past weeks in German media. Not exactly a glowing review.
Merkel is far, far more popular and enjoys more respect abroad than at home. Her staying power and longevity has created continuity and a level of stability that a lot of people (at home and abroad) treasure. A bit like the Queen. Except that Merkel had it within her power to make much more impactful decisions than the British monarch…and unfortunately a lot of them were the wrong ones. Or were postponed for so long that damage was done.
Germany has enjoyed enormous benefits from the euro, true. However – whenever some bill has to be paid in the EU then Germany is usually the one to step up to the plate first – so there’s some kind of equaliser for the euro advantages. However, this, in turn, generates frustration among the population who already have to shoulder some of the highest rates of tax in Europe (if not the world), face ever-rising living costs – and then have to watch their money being spent elsewhere. Many feel that Merkel has been the architect of a kind of politics that serves everyone except people in Germany.
Germans will also have to face up to the fact that, with the euro, having enjoyed “eine doppelte Portion, gratis” (“a double portion, for free”, i.e. a disproportionate/unfair advantage) has come with a creeping price. My understanding of the Target2 claims is that the imbalance which has been created within the system has now trapped Germany within it. The only way forward is a full fiscal union (and the transfer union that goes with it).
Full fiscal union was always the plan.
Yes, although I think previously, there has always been some kind of unspoken assumption that there was still a way to reverse out of the project. That avenue is all but closed off – if not in fact, then for all practical purposes as it would just cause so much damage.
Full fiscal union is the French (and European Commission) plan, so that Germany can be made to subsidise the debts of the rest of the European Union for ever. Germany itself wants to return to the original Maastricht plan to enforce budget balance on all eurozone members so that such subsidies are unnecessary. But in practice it’s had to allow the European Central Bank to pay for the debts of Italy etc. with printed money so that those countries don’t drop out of the eurozone. Faced with such dilemmas you wonder what scope is left for Germany to run a coherent national policy or for its leaders to ‘succeed’. But isn’t that what ‘ever closer union’ is supposed to mean?
Would there be budgetary union too? How would that be managed?
Germany’s political stability for good or bad is down to the electoral system that virtually denies any party a majority and to the willingness of the SDP and CDU/CSU to form coalitions. British politics would be very different if there was a serious possibility of the Tories and Labour forming coalitions.
Very true. In terms of longevity Frau Markel may be comparable with our dear Queen, but in all other respects she is more like Theresa May.
At long last……some dares speaking about the elephant that has been squatting the room for 16 years !!!!
How this woman could be branded the most powerful woman in the world is just baffling. The Germans love her for 2 reasons.
1/ She’s done what they love best : change nothing
2/ The Eurozone is a distorting mirror whose effect is to make German exports permanently cheaper than they should be and those of weaker economies more expensive. Add to that the trade barriers erected around the Single Market (but removed within it) and German exporters can hardly fail. ( direct quote from this article )
Has anyone forgotten how she and Wolfgang Schäuble were ready to throw the Greeks out of the eurozone in 2008 ? How is taking the brunt of the ongoing refugee crisis ? The Greeks…..!!! Had she had her way on this one, this would have unleashed a catastrophe of mammoth proportions.
The refugee crisis was just an opportunistic move set to provide cheap labour in a country with an ageing population. You can drive through villages in the Black Forest where precision industries are quartered to see the posters advertising “Atzubis” positions ……or apprentices wanted.
Remember New Year’s in Cologne ?? That’s when Germans finally started to smell the coffee. How many people died due to attacks perpetrated by so called refugees ?
Die Welt published a very good editorial last Tuesday about the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris where 130 people where shot…….130 !!! Quite a few of the perpetrators came through the open borders thanks to Frau Merkel and watching the french news this morning and hearing what a lawyer was referring to as the Tchernobyl effect ( people dying long after the attack……..relatives suddenly dying of cancer etc….) made my blood boil.
Wir shaffen das !!
One of the coming presidential run candidate here in France, Valerie Pecresse is selling her campaign saying “ I am a mix of Margareth Thatcher and Angela Merkel”
HELP !!!
Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes in her book “Prey” how the women living in Germany saw their rights and freedoms diminished thanks to the presence of the “rapefugees”
I’m glad someone sees Frau Merkel for what she is. The worst German Chancellor since the Austrian with the ridiculous moustache.
Yes, closing down nuclear power was one of her most egregious acts. Since when are there tsunamis in the Baltic? It gives Germany yet more excuses to take economic advantage over those countries going to zero coal.
I just want to add one thing. I’m a citizen of the “P” in pigs. Germany had nothing to do with our troubles. From the very beginning we, in Portugal went for the flashy “big public works” policy instead of preparing the country for a transition into a modern economy. The money from Europe was used to buy election victories. We are now one of the countries in the world with more km of highway per capita. When the crisis hit us we were in stagnation for 20 years. And all through this process, we had people inside our country warning us this wasn’t the way to go. I believe the same happened in Spain and Greece (Italy is odd, it combines first-rate industry with a byzantine political system). So, Germany probably imposed a financial straight jacket on the rest of the Union but it isn’t their fault that we are dysfunctional
I can’t explain why, but I always feel as though Angela would…bleed acid.
Can anyone confirm or deny?
Merkel is also the “Kanzlerin” who failed to invest in infrastructures: bridges, roads, rails and schools. Those 16 years of stability have some bitter material and social consequences for the successor. So that Germany that first elected Angela Merkel is no more. Merkel definitely contributed to change the World. I am not sure it was for the better.
There is no doubt that Angela’s legacy is mixed; anyone who has been in power for 16 years will have had pluses and minuses.
I’m a bit disappointed in the article as much of it is context-free.
1) Brexit: Cannot just be dumped on Merkel. Cameron was always lukewarm over Europe. He was the one who withdrew the Conservatives from the centrist coalition in the European Parliament. When he went to Europe pre-referendum, I believe he was over cocky that he would win i.e. no sense of urgency and no concrete proposals. He could easily have requested a pause in freedom of movement, and that would have been allowed. The other European leaders also need to accept responsibility.
And the UK remain campaign was rubbish.
2) Refugees: Good point from Richard. Remember that Germany accepted 12M refugees at the end of WWII. German-speaking (supposedly) but destitute; women, children, the old; A huge number of able-bodied men were in POW camps and remained there for years.
Regarding asylum-seekers: There was a recent discussion involving Douglas Murray and Yannis Varoufakis; DM rabbited on about refugees/asylum-seekers;VF swotted that away in about 20 seconds: Greece, a fraction the size and wealth of Germany had accepted 1M Albanian refugees 20 years ago and they were largely assimilated.
3) Defence: Germany, understandably, has a horror of its militarist past. Not sure how you can justify a reasonable level of spending to the electorate on that basis. But it did/does need to be done. So, Angela not good but not easy.
4) Industry/Exports: Germany certainly benefits from an undervalued euro but do do all the other euro one countries. Interesting point about Peugeot’s/China: Britain had the same problem: 1960’s: the British car industry dominated European markets; by the 1970’s, collapse: poor value, poor quality, underinvestment. Germany has euro advantages but it has kept up its development and investment.
5) Infrastructure: Undoubtedly a black mark. A stitch in time…
6) Nuclear Power/Coal: Again a black mark. But context: Germany has always had a strong anti-nuclear movement, the Greens. Of all the European countries, only France has a major commitment to nuclear and they don’t have a huge amount of coal let alone oil/gas: i.e. Germany panicked and they had an alternative.
7) Nordstrom’s: Germany has a tradition of dealing with the Soviet Union since the 70’s, realpolitik, and the SU has morphed into Russia. I do believe a bad decision but there is context.
8) PIIGS: Germany went through a major industrial upheaval in the early 2000’s: they were not competitive. Understandably, human nature is “we went through tough times and came out the other side, why can’t they?”.
Each of the trashed countries had built up their own store of problems: Ireland/Spain – speculative property booms; Greece: low tax take, corruption, fiddled their budget numbers to get into the euro, then massive borrowing to no good effect; Portugal: I hadn’t known about the comment above, interesting; Italy: disfunctional, Italians themselves are often the first to rue the Risorgimento.
Even allowing for the above, Germany’s response was tin-eared and largely to protect their own loans; why try to get Greece to pay back money which it just didn’t/doesn’t have?
Just default and start again; moral hazard? And then be more cautious about lending in future.
9) Trashing coalition partners: Done by the voters. That’s what happens at election time: each party tries to steal voters from their erstwhile partners.
The criticism from the article completely misunderstands how that system works.
10) Laschet: Only one of a completely underwhelming set of candidates; and that goes for all the parties. And he was chosen by the party, his main rival hemmed and hawed for ages about whether he would actually run or not.
« 2) Refugees: Good point from Richard. Remember that Germany accepted 12M refugees at the end of WWII. German-speaking (supposedly) but destitute; women, children, the old; A huge number of able-bodied men were in POW camps and remained there for years.
Regarding asylum-seekers: There was a recent discussion involving Douglas Murray and Yannis Varoufakis; DM rabbited on about refugees/asylum-seekers;VF swotted that away in about 20 seconds: Greece, a fraction the size and wealth of Germany had accepted 1M Albanian refugees 20 years ago and they were largely assimilated. »
can’t see much similarities with the above mentioned refugees profiles and the largely almost impossible to assimilate Muslims. Merkel put her foot into her mouth years ago saying « Islam gehört su Deutschland » ……” Islam belongs to Germany”……never heard so much tosh in my entire life !
Albanians in Greece ?? Similar to Belgians in France…..they are neighbours !!!
You should read Sebastian Kurtz interview in Die Welt. He doesn’t want to see one Afghan refugee in Austria and he is right. They have enormous problems with that demographic that represents one of the highest population / Total population in Austria. Added to that the rape and murder of a 13 years old girl by 3 Afghan refugees…… no one in Europe wants a repeat of 2015.
Same in Sweden, same in Denmark.
WW2 refugees were largely German speaking and from the area. In 2015 Merkel opened a can of worms that is leaking plenty since then.
Yes, by all means, Germany did its bit……but they still made quality products that happened to be overpriced….once the Euro allowed the DM to be devalued Schröder came along and sent people into Hartz 4……everything became peachy for …….older Germans….I mean by that those who had enough money…..not the others forced to work penny pinching jobs into their 70’s…..
I am not sure all of this is to be regarded has a legacy worth celebrating.
The last point is the best. After having scrapped nuclear energy in a mob driven knee jerk reaction…….she now wants to have gas seen cleaner than nuclear energy, all the while using coal energy until 2035……Nordstream….thank you very much. And this farce is of course relayed in Brussels by ex Waffen Uschi …..aka von der Leyen who just parrots what she’s been told to by the boss in Berlin.
It is typical for most commentaries on Frau Merkel to pose an unflattering picture of her as part of the process. This is easy amnd not inevititable, I don’t think she has ever spent much time on worrying about her appearance let alone any kind of personal image, good for her! I can think of no recent British PM who would do their own shopping and actually enjoy being at football matches or Wagner Operas.
A lot of this piece dwells on the fact that she has been Chancellor of coalition governments. Well well! apart from a brief time ine the 1950s under Chancellor Adenaur, all German Governments are coalitions, the system is devised practically to ensure this and it has served the German people well. It compares with what we have in this country where 42% of the vote gives 100% of the power to a man aiming, blatantly, to removing any channels of opposition at all.
The Euro was well in place before Merkel came into power. The Germans were luke-warm at best for the Euro, after all they already had a European Currency, the Deutschmark which was welcome wherever they chose to spend it. However they went along with it to demonstrate their commitment to Europe. It is hardly the fault of Germany that the Euro has worked exactly as it was predicted it would.
I doubt if she ever took Cameron seriously. If Cameron had the courage of his undoubted pro-Europe pro-EU convictions he should have worked with the main-stream European right such as Merkel to rebuild the institution from within, replacing the France/Germany axis. It is how the EU and its predecessors have always worked. But he remained scared of Farage.
As far as the refugee crisis goes, it has been a feature of German life since the war to accomodate refugees. We will see in the longer term if her instincts were correct.
Yes, they were lukewarm in adopting the Euro which in fact was a Deutsch Mark devaluation in disguise. The Germans fell for it and in the end, like the article said, benefited them plenty.
We french basically manufacture crap products…..cars nobody buys ….pots and pans ….apart from luxury products. The euro has made “ our stuff” a lot more expensive than it should. I remember travelling to Bejin in the early 90’s…….all cabs were……Peugeot. Have a look today. No Chinese would dare driving a Peugeot unless he wants to be a social outcast. Our trade balance is an abyss while Germany piggy bank is overflowing…..not even investing in new infrastructure…….that’s when being “ sparsam” becomes neurotic.
So ? Win win for Germany on all accounts……even military. It’s usually the French and the Brits who go down south to be shot at.
So ? She goes shopping to the supermarket ? Big fantastic deal ! I had diner a few tables away from the swedish Prime minister a few months ago. No one praises him in Sweden for going to the restaurant…..and it was nothing swanky….just handy a few blocks away from parliament.
Pretty scary to think that Angela Merkel’s achievement is doing her own shopping.
I am not holding my breath when it comes to the successor……Laschet would burst laughing at his own funeral and Scholz looks like a bookkeeper……mhmmm…..on second thought….he is a book keeper.
Good balance thanks Richard
So ‘it has been a feature of German life since the war to accommodate refugees ‘
So the rest of Europe not only had to endure A Hitler but has to suffer the effects of German war guilt as well