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The Merkel era is over, her fans will miss her
Photo: Patrick Seeger / picture alliance / dpa
It started months ago.
Over a year ago, when it became clear that Angela Merkel was not aiming for a fifth term in office, the big feelings started.
"We will still miss Merkel," they heard.
Often in combination with the sentence: "I didn't think I'd say that."
It wasn't conservatives or CDU members who said that.
They were people who I would have previously assessed as stable antifas, as leftists, as feminists.
At first there were only isolated statements, a slight sigh here and there, anticipatory nostalgia, so to speak, and I thought to myself, well, the pandemic has somehow made us all strange birds.
But this longing sigh, this peculiarly affectionate-melancholy "oh, Merkel, we will miss her" increased over time, until today, probably on Merkel's last day in office, one can say: On the left, an absolutely curious Merkel Worship made wide.
Tell me people, do you still feel something?
Pull yourself together.
That politicians who have worked with Merkel are now praising their services: given.
A question of courtesy.
Farewell with respect: yes, of course.
That journalists sometimes come to the conclusion that Merkel will be missing "us": strange, but within the realms of possibility.
In the summer, during the flood disaster, it was said on T-Online.de that it was “better than ever to predict that we will all sorely miss Angela Merkel”.
Who "we all" are and why so "painfully" - unclear.
According to a survey by the Insa Institute, around 60 percent of Germans are satisfied with Merkel's work.
47 percent say they will miss her.
Among those 47 percent, if you ask around, there are tons of people who never voted for them.
"I'll miss her" - if people say that, okay, maybe. But often enough it doesn't say "I'll ..." but rather "we will all miss her" with such a sure undertone that it is as if it were just plain obvious. A few days ago there were over 13,000 likes on Twitter for the joke of a “today's show” author: “Last official act,” he wrote, and two photos of Angela Merkel shaking hands with Andi Scheuer and laughing: “Oh, by the way What else I wanted to say ... You are fired! "- Yes, funny. It would have been funnier if she really threw Andi Scheuer out and Jens Spahn with her. In Merkel's farewell party, things that she did mix with things that she never did.
Simone Schmollack called Merkel in the »taz« »the secret revolutionary«: she »gave society an update«, even if she »did not consciously force modernization«, »she let it happen sooner«.
Uh, yes, ... thank you Merkel, very generous.
Another taz text said: »We will miss your style - Prussian, factual, ironic.
Not your politics. ”At least a differentiation.
Most of the people who "already miss" Merkel or declare that "we all" will "miss her a lot" do not explain why exactly.
more on the subject
Merkel farewell: What else I would have to ask ... A column by Nikolaus Blome
Yes why? Sure, for some it will be due to 2015 and “we can do it”. But otherwise? What will we miss? What is it that is being cultivated? The fact that Merkel, against her better judgment, prevented an appropriate climate policy? That she didn't really do something about the corruption in her party? That at the end of their reign in Germany more and more people were living in poverty, especially children and the elderly? That Merkel declared with regard to the right of adoption for homosexuals "that I find it difficult to achieve complete equality"? And that she voted against "marriage for all"? That she never thought of women's quotas, even if she then - quite late - declared at some point thatDoes parity seem "simply logical" to her? That she accepted Seehofer's racist attacks? That the investigation of the NSU crimes did not get very far under your government? That in spite of your "we can do it" so many people continue to die at the European external borders? Or is it the arms exports to dictatorships? The disaster in Afghanistan?
Successful women are not automatically feminists
No, of course not, some will now say, but at least it has shown that a woman can be Federal Chancellor, a shining example ... so, so.
Such a shining example that at the end of her chancellorship the proportion of women in the Bundestag was less than a third.
What a feminist icon.
Women still earn less than men, single parents are still more often affected by poverty than average, abortion is still not legalized, violence against women is ubiquitous.
It is often emphasized that Merkel's path is paved with the political corpses of the men she expelled, but what has she done for women other than being a woman herself?
Not much.
Merkel leaves her party in ruins full of shattered male egos, none of the women are running for chairmanship.
Of course, as a leftist, one can also amuse oneself that the CDU is so on the brink of abyss, but it is also proof that powerful women do not necessarily follow other powerful women.
more on the subject
End of the Merkel era: Where was the scientist? A column by Christian Stöcker
There is a mistake in thinking that capitalism leads to: to automatically mistake professionally successful women for feminists.
That's nonsense.
Even if a woman in a high position becomes a role model for others, that does not mean that she is automatically a feminist.
You don't have to be grateful to her for fighting for herself, really not.
Excessive gratitude blocks the brain.
Well, some are expressly not grateful for Merkel's political achievements, but are already missing her style, her gestures and facial expressions, her personality.
It was "in no way corruptible," wrote Dietmar Bartsch (left).
"I will miss the unpretentious and unpretentious manner of Angela Merkel," explained Tabea Rößner (Greens).
Funny, personable, unpretentious - is that enough?
Meanwhile, the funniest, most touching pictures and video snippets of Merkel are piling up on social media: how she rolls her eyes when Putin gossips, how she hugs Emmanuel Macron, cheers at football, endures carnival.
Yes, some of it is funny or personable - but, honestly?
Is that it?
Are the people who now declare that they will miss Merkel sure that they will miss Merkel or are they more likely to miss the entertainment effect of their character?
And how progressive is it to judge the first German Chancellor not according to what she has achieved politically, but according to how charismatic she appeared in comparison to her indisputable colleagues?
It's embarrassing and sad.
Aren't these extremely tiny demands on the most powerful woman in the world?
Of course, Merkel often looked cool compared to the vain cocks she was surrounded by.
But how low can you set your standards?
The bar is low
, as the young people say.
Of course, Merkel has achieved a lot and got through it, even though she was called "Kohl's girl" and "Mutti".
Casual, as she ignored it, but it would have been more casual if she had once said: Stop calling me that, you flat-headed.
Deep political lack of imagination
If leftists miss Merkel, it is above all a sign of a deep lack of political imagination.
You have to gloss over yourself, which was not nice, in order to indulge mainly in sentimental fits of longing at the end of her reign.
Yes, cool that Merkel had an understanding of scientific questions and was able to calculate, but that's only remarkable because she was surrounded by incompetent men who she let her go.
Leftists miss Merkel because they dare not imagine what a great life we could all have.
It is pure wishful thinking when Merkel is now celebrated as the feminist, inspirational icon she never was.
Just before Stockholm Syndrome, if you ask me.
It is a dangerous frugality that shows itself.
How extinguished can one be inwardly?
Of course, the first female chancellor doesn't have to turn a country into a feminist paradise within 16 years just because she is a woman.
But there is still a lot between "feminist paradise" and the current state of inequality, injustice and a lack of future viability.
The political advances that were made during Merkel's reign were in large part not thanks to her policy, but in spite of it.
Everyone is free to miss Merkel, feelings are feelings.
Sure, Merkel showed girls and women what they can become.
But the admiration with which it is now being passed shows how many of us have forgotten how to expect anything at all politically.
Thank you Merkel, really.