GDA 2021 World Character: Angela Merkel, the Chancellor who did not bow

By Guadalupe Galván / El Universal de México

Woman, scientist, raised in the old Germany communist, Angela Dorothea Merkel she knows very well what it means to be underestimated. No one believed that she could direct the destiny of Germany, but for 16 years she gave him the stability he needed and became not only the most powerful figure in the country, but one of the most influential in the world.

All of those traits that made her the “unlikely chancellor” fueled her rise in German politics. Angela Dorothea Kasner, daughter of a Lutheran pastor, was born in Hamburg on July 17, 1954, but as a baby she moved with her family to the city of Templin, in what was the German Democratic Republic, where she grew up and spent her youth. That stage marked her and left her the self-discipline and willpower that characterize her.

A member of the Free German Youth, she married the physicist Ulrich Merkel in 1977, whom she divorced five years later, keeping the surname, even after remarrying, in 1998, with her current husband, Joachim Sauer, professor in chemistry. .

A lover of science as well as Richard Wagner’s music, Merkel studied physics at the University of Leipzig and obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry in Berlin. That’s where the meticulousness with which he acts comes from. “I am the type of person who tends to observe a situation first in order to better evaluate it. Being reserved at certain times is important “, Merkel would say in 1991, when she had just been appointed Minister of Women and Youth in the government of Helmut Kohl, considered “Father of German reunification”, and the first from the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kohl became Merkel’s mentor in the world of politics in Berlin. “Kohl’s Little Girl,” they used to call him, not as a compliment, but as a show that he didn’t take her too seriously. His carefree physical appearance was also a source of ridicule. It didn’t seem to bother him. “I always know more than you appear to be and never appear more than you are”, has been one of their mottos.

Way to power

In 1994, she was appointed Minister of the Environment. The tests for the mettle of a monotonous speech woman, not given to being carried away by moment or impulse, began early.

In 1998, Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a heavy defeat, and he was replaced by Gerhard Schroeder. A year later, Kohl was mired in a party funding scandal.

Merkel had to decide between loyalty to Kohl and saving the CDU from the crisis it was in. It opted for pragmatism even if it meant that some would label it “treason.” He published an article in the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, entitled “Kohl has damaged the party”. In it, Merkel assured that it was time to continue without the former chancellor.

With no further exit, the CDU accepted. A few months later, in April 2000, Merkel became the first woman to lead the party.

His next opportunity would come in 2005, when Schroeder called a snap election. The CDU and its equivalent in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), prevailed by one percentage point. And to the disbelief of many, Merkel became chancellor in November.

She knew she won by the slimmest, and learned the lesson: “I will be all things to all people.” Mainly, it would put the German people ahead of anything.

Pragmatism, above all

“Calm, pragmatic, consistent, motivated by help, oriented by values”, Merkel has printed her seal throughout 16 years of government, says Joyce Mushaben, author of the book “Becoming Madam Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic” to the Group of America Diaries (GDA). and the Republic of Berlin). “From his life in East Germany he learned to be silent, to wait and process things”. From her life as the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, “to have values”; of his career as a physicist, to evaluate each problem, separate it into parts, he explains. For this reason, he assures, “no one can copy his style.”

Little by little, Merkel, a football and work fanatic, gained the trust of the German people. Even his way of dressing, always with blazers, the classic position of his hands, in the shape of a diamond, somehow became a sign of stability. And she went from being “Kohl’s girl” to “mutter Angela”, or mother Angela, the one who cares, the one who protects. This is how he got reelection in 2009.

“Merkel’s cool, cautious and gradual style was so distinctive that it became a verb. When she was in her prime, Merkel came to mean the ability to manage the evolution of a united Germany in a way that reassured other countries about Germany and reassured Germans about themselves. That is perhaps his greatest legacy “, says Daniel S. Hamilton, an expert on Europe and director of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center between 2020 and 2021, to the GDA.

In 2011, she showed pragmatism again when, after being an advocate for nuclear energy, she vowed to end it after the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan. According to Mushaben, that would be Merkel’s most important “practical” legacy. “Although people say that they have not done enough against fuels, the truth is that they have emphasized the fight against climate change. It made a paradigm shift, although not in terms of implementation. It woke up the world, it made it aware of climate change and its consequences ”.

Merkel’s crises

Between 2010 and 2011 it faced one of the strongest crises that Europe has experienced and for which it has been most questioned: that of the euro. Greece, in particular, was in economic distress, and the German Chancellor was demanding major economic reforms that represented a burden that the Greeks could not bear. Under pressure from other European leaders, Merkel agreed to pass measures to save Greece from bankruptcy. “If the euro falls, Europe falls”, argument.

In 2013, Merkel would obtain the biggest electoral parliamentary victory in her years as chancellor, almost 42% of the vote. He formed a government in alliance with the SPD.

If that of 2011 has been Merkel’s management perhaps most questioned, in 2015 the migration crisis promoted a more human image of the chancellor: while other European leaders claimed that the doors had to be closed, Merkel opened them to thousands of Syrians fleeing from the war in your country. A phrase that he pronounced then would become symbolic until today of the open arms policy: “Wir schaffen das” (We can handle this), and was equated with the “Yes we can” of President Barack Obama, in the United States. Time magazine named her “Person of the Year” in December and considered her the de facto leader of the European Union (EU).

“Chancellor Merkel made a courageous and politically risky decision in 2015 to allow the entry of more than a million refugees into the country”, Michael Werz, an analyst at the Center for American Progress, told GDA. However, he added, “it never got the Germans to accept immigration, address the challenges and start a serious conversation about diversity. “ What’s more, “Reached an agreement on refugees with the Turkish president [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, paying his corrupt regime to keep Syrian refugees in Turkey, a deal that undermined the moral authority of Germany and Europe. “

The migratory opening would cost Merkel dearly: the opposition, along with a significant sector of the population, was against it, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) seized the opportunity. The reflection of disgust was evident in the 2017 elections, when the CDU achieved its worst result since 1949 and the AfD became the third force in the Bundestag (Parliament).

For some, Merkel’s decision was also key for the British to decide, in June 2016, to separate from the EU.

Stand out in a man’s world

During these 16 years, Merkel established herself not only as a European leader, but as a woman who does not allow herself to be bowed. He did not do it with President Donald Trump, with whom he appears in one of the most iconic photos of his term: that of the G7 summit in 2018, where he is seen facing him.

Nor was he intimidated by Vladimir Putin, who went so far as to say that he “fears his own weakness.”

Because of his way of facing this type of leadership, he was declared “leader of the free world.”

Hamilton puts it in these terms: “Merkel worked with Putin, but avoided his embrace. He related to his French counterparts but avoided their shadow. He dodged the Trump storm. “

For Werz, one of Merkel’s most important legacies, in addition to “having a solidly established Germany in Europe”, is precisely “having been one of the few Western leaders to have questioned and challenged leaders like Trump and Vladimir Putin” .

Feminist?

Although she avoided declaring herself a feminist for many years, she recently changed her mind. “Essentially, being a feminist has to do with the fact that men and women are equal, in the sense of participation in society and in life in general. And in that sense, I can say: “Yes, I am a feminist. We all should be ”.

Merkel, opina Mushaben, “It has shown that women can stand firm, defend their positions on the international stage. In doing so, it has opened the doors for other women, perhaps not for them to be in power for 16 years, but to be taken very seriously internationally ”.

Although there is still a long way to go to achieve parity, Mushaben recalled that “in the Foreign Ministry office, for example, 50% of department heads are women.” Since January 2016, a 30% gender quota has been established in the company boards of directors.

In 16 years, Merkel’s popularity has remained above 70%, but the same did not happen with her party. After the negative results in the 2018 regionals, Merkel decided that it was enough. “I once said that I was not born chancellor, and I have never forgotten it,” he said at one point. And he announced his decision not to seek reelection as leader of the CDU, nor as chancellor.

For Werz, Merkel took too long to withdraw: “Germany needed a change before 2021, and the weakness of her conservative party is a collateral damage of her decade and a half in government. German policy towards Europe will not change; if anything, it will be more pro-European ”.

Mushaben differs. From his point of view, with the departure of Merkel there will be a “power vacuum …”. With it, he indicates, there was a “balance” with the United Kingdom, with France … Now, he believes, we will see a “True division between East and West. You just have to look at Poland, Hungary, how they are behaving, and a division between North and South. Who is going to keep them up, all night, negotiating? Merkel did that. No one is going to be that kind of leader. “

On the future of Germany without her, she is not optimistic: “We are going to miss her very much. Just seeing the chaos around this coalition is going to be a problem for everyone. The next four years, even though people said they wanted a change, they are going to miss it and they are not going to be happy with the change they got. “

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* The Grupo de Diarios América (GDA), to which it belongs [este diario], is a leading media network founded in 1991, which promotes democratic values, independent press and freedom of expression in Latin America through quality journalism for our audiences.