Merkel a liberal hero? What a joke

First Brexit; then Trump. As the crisis of Western liberalism grows apace, liberalism’s supporters have hailed a new hero: Angela Merkel. Here, they say, is someone who stands up for human rights, free trade and rule-based multilateral institutions such as the EU and Nato. Don’t bet on it, says Chris Bickerton. For Chancellor Merkel, the rules of the international liberal order count for little “when weighed against German public opinion”. Take her handling of the refugee crisis: liberals applauded her declaration in 2015 that all Syrian refugees stuck in the Balkans were welcome in Germany, though it was arguably “a unilateral breach of European asylum law”. But in any event, faced with growing domestic opposition, she soon backtracked and shifted focus to closing borders and deporting refugees. It was Merkel who, ignoring fears about its status as a “safe haven country”, drove through the plan for Turkey to keep Syrian refugees on its soil in exchange for billions of euros: her own version of Trump’s Mexican wall. And it’s been her “relentless effort” to keep prices down in Germany that has thwarted the pro-growth policy that the rest of the eurozone badly needs. “If the future of Western liberalism rests on Ms Merkel’s shoulders, then it really is in trouble.”