Angela Merkel (Credit: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
Editor's Note:
Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer, journalist, and CNN contributor.
His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America.
Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International.
The opinions expressed here are solely his.
(CNN Spanish) -
I think the most popular political figure in Germany is Angela Merkel.
He is also one of the most solvent from an intellectual point of view.
He holds a doctorate in quantum physics for which it is now known as the University of Leipzig.
It is, at the same time, a mixture of Jimmy Carter's empathy, Ronald Reagan's knowledgeable realism, and Lyndon B. Johnson's political savvy.
Why these similarities?
In April 1980, Jimmy Carter occupied the White House and, suddenly, - as was his custom - Fidel Castro transferred to him the problem that the commander himself had created in the Peruvian Embassy in Havana by removing the guard from the diplomatic headquarters for a personal dispute. In a jiffy, 10,000 people had been taken asylum in the Peruvian legation in Cuba and thousands of other people wanted to escape the island in anything that floated.
What is known as "the Mariel exodus" had begun. Some 125,000 people were transferred to the United States. After the first ships arrived in Florida, someone suggested sinking some of the ships with cannon fire, but President Carter objected. He had not been chosen to kill unarmed political refugees, although 15% - later it became known - were criminals. Fidel Castro even sent several lepers. If the White House was not useful for exercising compassion, he was not interested in being in it.
Angela Merkel found herself in a similar situation in relation to the exodus from Syria due to the civil war that began in 2011. They were families - children, the elderly, women - who fled in terror from the war in 2015. They came to the Greek islands or to the south from Italy. She was the de facto leader of the European Union and assumed a large part of the exiles that came to the bloc. He had a deep empathy with people fleeing civil war and government repression supported by the relentless and merciless cannonade by the Russians. Neither a large part of his compatriots nor other European rulers understood his gesture, which was described as naive or reckless.
What makes her like Ronald Reagan is realism. He has no illusions about allies or opponents. Helmut Kohl, the former chancellor, was her ally and benefactor until Ms Merkel learned that she had links to corruption. Kohl admitted breaking funding rules by accepting anonymous donations to his party. There was an investigation that was later suspended and the former official had to pay a fine equivalent to US $ 142,000. From the moment the donations became known, Merkel criticized him bitterly. The Christian and moral reflexes of Lutheranism were stronger than the friendly ties. Likewise, his restrained reaction to the fact that the CIA was spying on his phone conversations is also a display of common sense and political realism.
The truth is that Merkel has been declared the most powerful woman in the world for several years by Forbes magazine and the "de facto" leader of the European Union.
He has chaired the G8 and the Council of Europe, but his most surprising achievement has been forging the "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats after defeating them in the 2005 elections.
It is not for nothing that he retires with honors and applause (6 minutes in the Bundestag) from the post of chancellor - prime minister in Germany - in the elections that will take place in September 2021, something that was announced after the 2018 elections.
At that time, he will be missed at the helm of Germany.
Perhaps his replacement at the head of the Party, Arwin Laschet, will surprise.
But that remains to be seen.
Angela Merkel