Merkel back at the helm of Germany’s new ‘grand coalition’
0 Leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, Angela Merkel, ahead of the parliamentary session to elect a German chancellor Angela Merkel is embarking on her fourth term as German chancellor in stormy times, facing pressure to bolster a fractious European Union and prove that liberal democracy can succeed as she faces a trade standoff with an increasingly protectionist US and a confident China and Russia.
Merkel, chancellor since 2005 and the EU’S longestserving leader, was sworn in yesterday at the head of a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties. That put an end to nearly six months of drift after September’s election, during which Germany’s voice in the world has been weakened by the domestic political impasse.
Merkel can now turn her attention fully to matters such as French President Emmanuel Macron’s monthsold proposals for ambitious reforms of the EU and its currency union, and US President Donald Trump’s threats of trade tariffs against the EU and even taxes on German automakers.
Merkel, 63, has long dismissed the notion that she should be regarded as the “leader of the free world” following the election of Trump, who is unpopular in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. A strong advocate of multilateral solutions, she says that no one person or country can solve every problem.
However, German President Frank-walter Steinmeier underlined expectations that Germany should serve as an example as he formally appointed her new government.
“Western liberal democracies are exposed to challenges, external as well as internal,” he said, with authoritarian alternatives gaining in confidence. He said that “these are testing years for democracy,” with an “everyone against everyone else” mentality spreading in world politics, including in trade policy.
“The expectations of our friends and partners are huge, particularly in Europe,” Steinmeier said. “Many hope we in Germany will show that liberal democracies are capable of acting and facing the future.”
Merkel’s first trip abroad of her fourth term will take her to Paris on Friday to meet Macron. In comments published yesterday by Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the French leader was quoted as saying that “if Germany doesn’t move, part of my project is condemned to failure.”
“I don’t think for a second that a European project can succeed without or against Germany,” he added.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy has entered postelection political gridlock just as Germany’s ends. And there are growing tensions between western nations and countries in eastern Europe, such as the nationalist governments of Poland and Hungary. At home, Merkel will have to hold together potentially her most fragile governing coalition yet in what is widely expected to be her last term.