German leader Merkel extends her reign with pragmatic politics
But rise of right-wing party may mean an unsettled fourth term
She has outlasted two U.S. presidents, three French leaders, six Italian prime ministers and three British ones. Once again, German voters decided the woman they call “Mutti” (mother) — a leader who opposes President Trump on major foreign issues — knows best.
Angela Merkel’s victory Sunday in national parliamentary elections means Germany’s first female chancellor and daughter of a Lutheran pastor who grew up under Communism in East Germany, secures a fourth term.
Merkel, 63, extends her 12-year tenure as Europe’s longest-serving democratically elected leader.
Her achievement is not just an exercise in political endurance, but also a triumph for her governing formula: pragmatic, centrist, fair. Merkel’s win was tainted by the emergence of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a right-wing nationalist group, as the country’s third-largest, but her methods and manner were validated, experts said.
“She does her job. She does it quietly. She does it efficiently. The economy is doing fine. There has been no mood for change at the top,” said Michael Wohlgemuth, an expert on political and economic affairs at the Berlin office of Open Europe, a think tank.
“Germans feel pretty good about themselves compared to our neighbors,” he added.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union bloc won 33.5% of the vote, to remain the largest party in parliament, according to exit polls.
A poor performance by the Social Democratic Party (21%), Merkel’s current coalition part- ner, prompted its leaders to quickly rule out playing a role in any new government. That means the business-friendly Free Democratic Party and the Greens could take part.
Despite her success, Merkel may not be the outright leader of the free world many allies and liberal-leaning voices have hoped for against Trump’s isolationist and combative Washington.
Germany’s unique 20th-century history is too compromised for that. Merkel herself does not covet the role. Her policies and instincts are more conservative — she opposes gay marriage — than her admirers give her credit.
While her positions on climate change, immigration and social justice are the opposite of Trump’s in many regards, they also are broadly supported by Germany’s mainstream political groups, with the exception of the anti-Islam and euro-skeptic AfD.
Merkel may be celebrated as a defender of European values who will stand up to Trump’s rhetoric on military action in North Korea, trade protection or an aggressive Russian President Vladimir Putin. But her chief domestic political rivals would not do anything differently.
In this sense, Germany is the leader of the free world. Merkel is along for the ride.
The strong showing for the AfD — with about 13% of the vote, according to exit polls — complicates matters. There has been no right-wing party in Germany’s parliament since the decade after the Nazis were defeated in World War II.
That means Merkel can expect political turbulence, a fact she acknowledged when she addressed supporters Sunday and vowed to listen to the “concerns and anxieties” of AfD voters.
Still, her election, showed she possesses that elusive political gold dust: luck.
Merkel has achieved something that has escaped nearly every other country in the West recently — she made Germany feel tranquil.
“Germany is an oasis of calm and stability right now,” said Joerg Forbrig, a scholar at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank.