Farewell, Merkel. You were once ‘leader of free world’
GERMANS GET READY TO MOVE ON FROM THEIR ICONIC CHANCELLOR
In central Berlin, a giant billboard shows a pair of hands, arranged in the shape of a diamond, in front of a female torso dressed in a green jacket. “Tschuss Mutti,” the billboard reads. “Bye, bye, Mommy.”
Even without a face, Germans know who’s being depicted. The diamond, the colorful jacket and the word “Mutti” are iconic, just like Angela Merkel herself.
After 16 years, Germany is saying “Tschuss” to its longtime chancellor. Across the country, the departure of Merkel has brought out affectionate nostalgia, tinged with a drop of irony. Yet there’s also fatigue, verging on irritation, a twitchy restlessness to see her off and start afresh. As with most farewells, feelings are mixed.
For Merkel, a leader who never sought acclaim, a low-key, almost ambivalent exit feels fitting. But it also reveals an irony about her rule. The qualities that ensured her success - her caution and consistency, her firmness and diligence - are now, at the end of her tenure, leading some to regard her departure with relief. The Germany Merkel made, in nearly two decades of steady stewardship, is ready to move on.
For all her calm, Merkel’s time in charge has not been without tumult. She steered Germany through a series of crises - the financial crash in 2008, the euro debt crisis that followed, the migration crisis of 2015 and, of course, the pandemic. She brokered a truce, albeit a brittle one, between Russia and Ukraine, helped to negotiate Brexit and saw Donald Trump come and go. Each event had the potential to sunder the world. In part thanks to Merkel, none did.
Overall verdict
Her role in these crises continues to be debated. Many progressives maintain that her austerity policies have done more harm than good, and many conservatives believe she should have closed Germany’s borders to migrants in 2015. The overall verdict, though, is unlikely to change. Under great pressure, Merkel was a conservative in the best sense, retaining the country’s prosperity, cohesion and purpose. Her great achievement was not what she built, but what she managed to keep.
Yet preservation can quickly turn to stagnation. Many of Merkel’s policies that had an initially stabilizing effect carried hidden long-term costs. And at the very moment she is about to leave office, that’s starting to show. Her “sins of omission” - as a British historian and Germany expert, Timothy Garton Ash, put it to me - are becoming obvious.
Outsize role
Take Europe. Across nearly two decades, Merkel played an outsize role in guiding the union through a succession of challenges. But in the process, she stored up future problems.
In 2016, for example, the chancellor spearheaded a deal with Turkey to take in refugees. The move ended the yearlong migration crisis, in which more than a million migrants claimed asylum in Europe. But it’s hardly a sustainable solution, neither for Turkey - where economic difficulties and growing numbers of refugees threaten to destabilise the country - nor for Europe. Migrants, especially after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country, will continue to seek refuge on the continent.
In other areas, too, Merkel’s approach fell short. Her handling of the euro debt crisis helped secure the future of the bloc, but at the cost of leaving the underlying dynamics - overindebted southern countries and an unbalanced monetary union - untouched. Her conciliatory approach to Russia, not least over the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, looks ever more untenable as President Vladimir Putin ruthlessly consolidates his regime.
Future course
In Merkel’s absence, European leaders - including Germany’s next chancellor, whoever that is - will need to determine the bloc’s future course. How will it navigate the increased rivalry between America and China? To what extent will it embark on a more autonomous defence strategy? And how will it combat the rise of the far right?
Just a couple of years ago, Merkel was garlanded as the “leader of the free world.” Against the chaos and disruption of Trump, her sober, judicious style was widely envied. Now, in a twist of history, different qualities are wanted. I’m pretty sure there will be many moments in the not-too-distant future when Germans will painfully miss Angela Merkel. And yet: It is time. Tschuss Mutti.