Tom Idan Merkel: The Eternal Chancellor leaves Germany divided - Walla! news

2021-09-04T09:14:17.908Z

For more than 15 years, Merkel was an anchor of stability on a continent and a chaotic world, but her retirement from politics gave the left a golden opportunity to return to power - igniting a debate over its legacy

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The end of the Merkel era: The eternal chancellor leaves Germany divided

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Germany on the way to an unknown future.

Merkel visits one of the floodplains yesterday (Photo: Reuters)

On the one hand, Merkel maintained the eurozone during the global economic crisis, prevented the disintegration of the EU after the abandonment of Britain and sought a political consensus in the country when she added to her government the Social Democrats on the other side of the political map.

She abandoned the use of nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster and during her tenure the status of women and members of the proud community improved.

On the other hand, its critics point to the broader visionless pragmatism as its weak point.

Instead of formulating far-reaching reforms in the field of economics and the environment, she preferred to maintain the existing one.

While preaching for tolerance and acceptance of the other and for democracy and human rights, she maintained close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and showed a soft hand in relation to human rights-violating countries like China and Turkey.

The chemist from the East

Angela Dorothea Kazner was born in the port city of Hamburg on July 17, 1954, to a Lutheran clergyman and a schoolteacher. They moved to a small community in East Germany, in the days when tens of thousands tried to flee the communist state. Merkel excelled in mathematics and Russian, which helped her develop a common language with the Russian president.

She kept the name of her first husband, the physicist Ulrich Merkel, whom she married in 1977 and from whom she divorced five years later. She is currently married to Joachim Zauer, a professor of chemistry, the father of two from his previous marriage. Merkel has no children of her own.

When the Berlin Wall fell, Merkel was still working in a chemistry lab and began her political career as an activist in a group that worked for democracy. Later, it merged with Helmet Kohl's Christian Democratic Party, its first "eternal" chancellor and political mentor. If the formation of the next government is delayed, it may still break its record - 16 years and a month as chancellor.

Changed the face of the party.

Merkel sworn in as Chancellor, November 22, 2005 (Photo: AP)

The Eternal Chancellors.

Merkel and Kohl, at the party's conference on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of German unification, October 2010 (Photo: AP)

The chemist from the East changed the face of the party, which until then had been dominated by Catholics from the west of the country.

An opponent mockingly called her "Moti" (mother), but they did not prevent her from occupying the Conservative leadership and the whole of Germany, leaving dust on any other politician who considered challenging her.

The world of science, from which it grew, shaped its policy.

Merkel has always adhered to restrained, balanced and measured steps based on data.

At the start of the outbreak of the corona plague last year, it did not mislead the public and warned of the difficult months ahead.

Despite initial difficulties in the vaccination campaign and prolonged closures, Germany's medical and economic condition is better compared to other countries in Europe and the world.

The immigration crisis has become the fuel for the far right

One of Merkel's most notable and controversial decisions was the introduction of about one million refugees and asylum seekers into Germany in 2015.

The far-right parties in Europe lined up with xenophobia and recorded ballot papers, when even in Germany the far-right party entered the Bundesag for the first time since the end of World War II.

"Alternative to Germany", some of whose members called Merkel "traitor", is the third largest party in Germany today.

Although it has weakened in recent years, surveys show that it still has a solid support base.

The emerging migrant crisis in Eastern Europe and the fear of another wave of refugees from Afghanistan will ensure that an alternative to Germany will also be relevant in the upcoming elections.

Immigrants hold a picture of Merkel during a demonstration in Budapest, 2015 (Photo: AP)

Merkel had hoped to keep the Conservative candidate, Armin Lashit, a well-preserved country but to develop the next chancellor's table, whoever it was, would lay a pile of local and global problems. Sometimes both. One of them is global warming, which in the past was an issue that earned Merkel the title of "climate chancellor" for her ambitious goals. Until recently she was back to beating her and her party like a boomerang.

A growing movement of young environmental activists accuses Merkel of failing to understand the magnitude of the crisis when Germany does not even meet the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to which it has committed.

The devastating floods that flooded towns in the west of the country in July only sharpened the importance of the issue among the younger generation. A photo of Lashit, Merkel's intended replacement, laughing during his visit to one of the hotspots of the disaster created a chain reaction that led to the strengthening of the left-wing bloc and the Greens.

For such a government to be formed, it would require an alliance of the Social Democrats and the Greens to the de Linke party from the far left.

Merkel warned against such an alliance that, if cut short, would lead to a significant change in Germany's foreign policy, including in relation to Israel.

Despite the controversy, relations with Israel remained close.

Netanyahu and Merkel at a press conference in Jerusalem, 2018 (Photo: Reuters)

Merkel has been one of Israel's most prominent companies in the world in recent years.

It placed great emphasis on the fight against rising anti-Semitism in the country and refrained from clashing publicly in Israel even when it, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, expanded construction in the settlements and sabotaged negotiations with Iran, of which Germany was a partner.

The submarine affair and their sale to Egypt also clouded relations and drew Germany into the mud of corruption that had spread in the Israeli security establishment.

In May, during Operation Wall Guard, Merkel, in a conversation with Netanyahu, expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket fire and condemned the anti-Israel demonstrations in Germany.

She was scheduled to pay a farewell visit to Israel this week, but the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and the accompanying crisis have changed plans and it is still unclear whether her planned meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will materialize.

1/5

When Merkel entered the Chancellery in Berlin in 2005, the president of the United States was George W. Bush. Bush. In Britain, a member of the European Union, Tony Blair served as Prime Minister and Jacques Chirac was in the midst of his second term as President of France. Everyone had changed many times, and only Merkel remained strong in her chair.

However, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the resentment in Europe over the conduct of the United States during it, illustrated the limitations of power of Merkel and of the EU as a whole. Called the "leader of the free world" during Donald Trump's four years in office, he was unable to lead a separate European mission that did not depend on the kindness of one power or another.

In about a month, probably a little longer, a new era will begin in Germany.

The rise of China and Russia, the unification of the United States, the weakening of democracy in Europe and a host of military, humanitarian and environmental crises around the world ensure that the life of the next Chancellor will be difficult from the first moment.

It is not at all certain that it will withstand their drift, as Merkel has successfully done in the last decade and a half.

And it's not a trivial matter.

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Source: walla

All news articles on 2021-09-04

Tom Idan Merkel: The Eternal Chancellor leaves Germany divided - Walla! news

The end of the Merkel era: The eternal chancellor leaves Germany divided

for further reading

The chemist from the East

The immigration crisis has become the fuel for the far right

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