Angela Merkel, the “stainless” German Chancellor, is about to leave power after 16 years

After 16 years in power with “stainless” popularity and after a poorly prepared succession, Angela Merkel is finally preparing to leave the chancellery, leaving a great void in Germany and in the world despite its uneven legacy.

Merkel, who equaled the longevity record in the chancellorship of his mentor Helmut Kohl, risks retiring from politics with a historic defeat for his Conservative party.

Having long believed that victory was guaranteed, Christian Democrats are punished by the wear and tear of a decade and a half in power.

Also because of the mistakes of her candidate – the clumsy and unpopular Armin Laschet – as well as Merkel’s negligence in passing the baton.

Mobilized on all fronts, both in Germany As abroad, where she multiplies the farewell visits, the 67-year-old leader tried to straighten the boat by showing herself in the electoral campaign with Laschet.

But according to the polls it has been in vain so far.

Merkel Yet it retains a popularity that many Western leaders would envy.

The year 2019 seems to have been far behind, when the chancellor, at the head of a great coalition of the right and the left exhausted, gave the impression of being overwhelmed by the mobilization of young people in favor of the climate.

The “biggest challenge”

As a symbol of the twilight of her government, uncontrollable tremors affected Merkel during official ceremonies and raised doubts about the ability of this “almost indefatigable” chancellor to conclude her fourth and final term.

But the coronavirus pandemic came and boosted his popularity. Three-quarters of Germans say they are satisfied with their action at the head of the country, according to polls.

Voices were even heard during the pandemic calling for a fifth term, but the first woman to lead Germany ruled it out outright.

This scientist by training carried out an almost flawless management of covid-19 and knew how to communicate, pedagogically and in a rational way, to face the “greatest challenge”, according to her, since the Second World War.

The confinement, which reminded him of his life in the former GDR (Democratic Republic of Germany, communist), constituted, in his opinion, “one of the most difficult decisions” in his 16 years in power.

Germany it was less dramatic than much of its European neighbors, despite a deadly second wave in the fall of 2020.

The pandemic and its dramatic economic and social consequences have also allowed “Mutti” (“mom”), as many Germans affectionately call her, to adapt to the crisis by changing the paradigm.

This fervent defender of European austerity after the financial crisis of 2008 despite the suffocation of Greece, promoted increased spending and the mutualisation of debt, the only thing, according to her, that could save the European project.

In 2011, the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan had quickly convinced her to initiate the progressive abandonment of nuclear power in Germany.

Risk decisions

But his most daring political gamble came in the fall of 2015, when he decided to open the doors to hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers.

Despite public opinion fears, he promised to integrate and protect them. “We will do it!” It is perhaps the most surprising phrase uttered by Merkel, quite reluctant to passionate speeches.

Until then, this doctor in Chemistry who continues to carry the surname of her first husband and does not have children had cultivated an image of a prudent and even cold woman, without edges, who adores potatoes, opera and hiking.

To explain his historic decision on migrants, taken without actually consulting his European partners, he invoked his “Christian values” and a certain obligation of exemplarity of a country that carries the stigma of the Holocaust.

This Christian charity of Angela Kasner, her maiden name, comes from her father, an austere pastor who voluntarily went to live with his entire family in communist and atheist East Germany to preach.

“My heritage has marked me, especially the desire for freedom during my life in the GDR”he said on the 30th anniversary of Reunification.

But fear of Islam and the attacks led part of the conservative electorate to take refuge in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which in September 2017 reached Parliament, thus breaking a postwar taboo.

“Leader of the free world”

However, after the Donald Trump earthquake and Brexit, Merkel, who has always taken her decision on refugees, has been enthroned by the press and many politicians as the “leader of the free world” in the face of the rise of populism.

Barack Obama, one of the four US presidents Merkel has known since 2005, describes her in his memoirs as a “reliable, honest, intellectually precise” leader and a “beautiful person.”

The “Teflon Chancellor,” who seems immune from trouble, is a political animal as particular as it is fearsome, and many of her adversaries underestimated her.

In 2000, he benefited from a financial scandal in his party to take over the reins of the CDU, overtaking the entire male hierarchy.

On September 18, 2005, the Social Democratic Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, was imposed by the minimum in the elections. This first victory was followed by three others, in 2009, 2013 and 2017.

On May 20, she stated that she was retiring from politics with only one ambition: not to say that she has been “lazy.”

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