‘Mutti’ – or mother, as Angela Merkel’s friends and foes refer to her – is set to leave the German political scene after federal elections scheduled for September 26. Her dominance over the German and European political scene stretches for over two decades; she was chancellor for 16 of these years.
Politically, she remains one of the most gifted managerial politicians of our time. Staid and demure, she has never given in to the temptation to become a loud and vulgar ‘celebrity’ politician.
In this sense, she was rather unremarkable. Lothar de Maizière, the only democratically-elected leader of the German Democratic Republic, recalled that when Merkel was his deputy spokesperson, he asked his office manager to take her clothes shopping: “She looked like a typical GDR scientist, wearing a baggy skirt and Jesus sandals and a cropped haircut.” In terms of personal charisma, this was conspicuous by its absence. Nonetheless, she managed to cut both a powerful and an awkward figure in international gatherings.
This no-nonsense approach and lack of superficiality were her makings. While other world leaders tried to build a persona based on some degree of flamboyance and popularity, she was reassuringly dull. She was not the first German politician to be so and this is partly down to why this country has become the most significant power in Europe.
As she leaves office, she is the longest-serving head of government in the European Union. But, while lauded by some, her legacy in Europe is also questioned by others. In particular, Germany’s stand following the financial crisis and the migration crisis has made her unpopular in some quarters in Europe.
Others see her as an antidote to charisma-centred populism. As a result, her legacy on the international stage will, undoubtedly, be debated for years to come. Indeed, except for Helmut Kohl and Willy Brandt, few other German post-war leaders have successfully left their mark on the international stage.
Merkel is the first chancellor to hail from the former German Democratic Republic. Methodical by nature, she didn’t even allow the fall of the Berlin Wall to change her plans. She once told The Guardian: “It was Thursday and Thursday was my sauna day, so that’s where I went, in the same communist high-rise where we always went.” She went to celebrate after her weekly appointment.
Whoever will follow in Merkel’s footsteps has a tough – if not impossible – act to follow
Her rise in the CDU was swift; following a scandal which tainted both Kohl and CDU leader Wolfgang Schauble, she wrote a damning article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung arguing that the party should move on. Within months, she was leading the party.
In 2005, she was the CDU/CSU’s candidate for chancellor, gaining only one per cent of the vote more than the Social Democrats. In November of that same year, she took office as Germany’s first-ever female chancellor. It was also her first grand coalition, an arrangement that drew criticism from both left and right.
In 2009, the CDU/CSU got its lowest vote share in 60 years but still emerged as the largest party. This time, she teamed up with the FDP, a party more sympathetic to the CDU’s aims. During her second legislature, she came into her own as a European leader to be reckoned with.
During the Greek government debt crisis, German banks shored up a large amount of Greek debt. Thus, it was in Germany’s interest that Greece didn’t default. The effects of the financial crisis were also felt in other countries in Europe, endangering the euro in the process. Major economic reforms were necessary to save the single currency. Merkel argued: “if the euro fails, then Europe fails.”
She soon became associated with a particular brand of austerity politics, raising the ire in various circles in Europe. For example, tensions between her and Silvio Berlusconi were visible for all to see. Others, such as the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, were more open in their criticism.
There were also tensions with the United States. The phone-tapping scandal led a reticent Merkel to comment that “spying among friends is never acceptable”. Relations with the US were strained further during the Trump presidency.
Her open-door policy at the height of the Syrian migration crisis was also divisive. Some criticised her policy, arguing that it opened the floodgates to social tensions and security threats. Others hailed it as a great humanitarian effort. Both sides of the argument have merit. Some of the criticism from her party stung.
While in the 2013 election, the CDU managed to garner its best result since 1990, the situation could not be more different in 2017 when the party recorded its worst result since 1949. Her efforts to form a government were long and tortuous and it was only the SDP’s agreement to yet another grand coalition that prevented fresh elections.
Following tensions within the CDU and with the CDU’s Bavarian CSU sister party, Merkel announced that she would withdraw from various political roles and not contest the 2021 election.
As she prepares to leave office, however, there is no clear-cut successor. The CDU candidate, Armin Laschet is now trailing behind in the polls. In the lead, at the time of writing, is Olaf Scholz of the SPD. The vice-chancellor and minister of finance is trying to project himself as the continuity candidate. The Green Party’s Annalena Baerbock follows closely in third place.
Merkel has refuted Scholz’s suggestion that he is her natural successor. Nonetheless, Laschet’s lacklustre performance in the first debate throws the result of the election wide open. What is certain is that Merkel’s departure leaves behind a vast power vacuum.
This power vacuum will also be felt in Europe. Varoufakis, one of her critics, described her strategy as that of “minimising the minimum that needs to be done to keep the eurozone going without reforming it”. Nonetheless, when the crunch came, she did what she had to do to avoid collapse.
Varoufakis’s counterpoint is that this was done to the detriment of European competitiveness vis-à-vis China and the US. However, this is a problem that preceded Merkel and will likely elude European leaders for the foreseeable future.
There are some elements of her time in office that will be sorely missed. Her managerial style and calm demeanour served her well and have managed to mask her more ruthless side.
Whoever will follow in her footsteps has a tough – if not impossible – act to follow.