BERLIN (AP) – Angela Merkel will step down as one of Germany’s oldest modern leaders and a world diplomatic heavyweight, with a legacy defined by her management of a succession of crises that shook a fragile Europe and no great vision for her own country.
In 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy, Merkel ended military recruitment, put Germany on the path to a future without nuclear power and fueled by fossils, allowed the legalization of same-sex marriage, and introduce a national minimum wage and benefited parents caring for young children, among other things.
But recently, a senior ally summed up what many consider its main service: as an anchor of stability in stormy weather. He told Merkel, “You protected our country well.”
“All the main crossroads you had to navigate … we never traced them in any election program: they came overnight and you had to govern well,” said Bavarian Governor Markus Soeder.
Merkel passed her first test in 2008, committing herself at the height of the global financial crisis that German savings were safe. Over the following years, he was a prominent figure in the effort to save the euro currency from the debt crisis that engulfed several members, accepting bailouts but insisting on painful spending cuts.
In 2015, Merkel was the face of a welcoming reception of migrants as people fleeing the conflicts in Syria and elsewhere crossed the Balkans. He allowed hundreds of thousands and insisted we would “manage” the influx, but met with resistance both at home and among European partners.
And at the twilight of his career (he announced in 2018 that he would not seek a fifth term), he led a COVID-19 response that made Germany better than some of his teammates.
On the international stage, Merkel insisted on seeking compromises and pursuing a multilateral approach to the world’s problems through years of turmoil that saw the US move away from European allies under President Donald Trump and the Great Brittany was leaving the European Union.
“I think Ms. Merkel’s most important legacy is simply that, in this time of global crisis, it provided stability,” said Ralph Bollmann, Merkel’s biographer and journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
There was “a constant succession of crises that were really existential threats and raised questions about the world order to which we are accustomed, and his achievement is that he ruled Germany, Europe and perhaps to some extent the world with considerable certainty. , for all this. details can be criticized, ”Bollmann said.
Before winning the top post in 2005, she noted, Merkel campaigned as a “chancellor of change, who wanted to make Germany more modern,” seeking deeper economic reforms and a more socially liberal approach than she had previously adopted. his center-right party.
But he abandoned much of his economic agenda after nearly pushing a huge poll to turn off voters by talking about far-reaching reforms, rather than embracing what he called a “many small steps” approach. Along with a pragmatic desire to eliminate conservative orthodoxy such as recruitment when appropriate, it allowed him to dominate the center of German politics.
The crises consumed so much energy that “there was not much time left to deal with other issues,” Bollmann said. There are a lot of outstanding issues: Merkel has admitted that “the lack of digitization in our society” is a problem, ranging from the notoriously irregular reception of cell phones to many health offices that use faxes to transmit data during the pandemic.
Merkel’s political longevity is already historic. Among Germany’s democratic leaders after World War II, only Helmut Kohl remains, who led the country to reunification during his 1982-98 term. He could overtake him even if he is still in office on December 17th. This is feasible if the parties take a long time to form a new government after the September 26 elections.
Merkel, 67, insists others should judge her history. However, he highlighted some achievements in a rare campaign appearance last month, starting with the reduction in the number of unemployed in Germany from more than 5 million in 2005 to less than 2.6 million now.
His predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, the trims of the welfare state and the economic reforms that were beginning to begin when he left office, deserve a share of the credit.
Merkel also inherited a plan to exit Schroeder’s nuclear power, but will accelerate it sharply after the demolition of the Japanese plant in Fukushima in 2011. More recently, she began Germany’s exit from coal-fired power. .
The chancellor noted the progress in renewable energy, saying its share in the German energy mix has increased from 10% to well over 40%. Merkel was often known as the “climate chancellor” in her early years, but she has also received criticism for moving too slowly; his government advanced the date this year to reduce German greenhouse gas emissions to “zero zero” by 2045, after the country’s supreme court ruled that previous plans put too much burden on young people.
Merkel praised her government’s push to improve Germany’s public finances, which allowed it to stop running out of new debt from 2014 until the coronavirus pandemic pushed it into huge bailout packages. Opponents argue that it spares the necessary investment in infrastructure.
“I could talk about how we have saved the euro,” he said, adding that “our principle of combining the responsibility of the affected countries themselves with solidarity was exactly the right method to give the euro a future.” Merkel’s approach to austerity was deeply resented in some parts of Europe and controversial among economists, but allowed her to overcome reluctance at home to rescue fighters.
Whatever the final verdict, Merkel can celebrate a unique end to her term: she will become the first German chancellor to step down when she chooses.
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Kerstin Sopke of Berlin contributed to this report.