Chancellor
RECKLINGHAUSEN, GERMANY: Angela Merkel shows up right on time outside the sun-splashed old town hall here. The 59-year-old chancellor works the crowd of 5,000, gives three or four waves from the stage, then settles in for local small talk and - despite hecklers - a 30-minute stump speech. She mixes folksy expressions with statistics and worldly observations, and assures listeners that their affairs, at home and farther afield, are safe in her hands.
“Successful together,” proclaim posters of her center-right Christian Democratic Union. “Germany is strong, and should remain so,” says another. “Stay cool and vote for the chancellor!” urge T-shirts, emblazoned, like the outsize campaign poster at Berlin’s main railway station, with her trademark diamond-shape hand gesture.
Europe and the world may scour Germany’s election campaign in vain for clues about what the troubled Continent’s greatest power intends for its future. But the euro crisis, and Germany’s role in leading Europe out of it, are hardly mentioned. Merkel, who is widely expected to win a third four-year term, has given no hint of major changes for the euro or the European Union, or any change in course from policies seen as harsh by Southern Europeans and overly cautious by the financial markets.
Instead, all politics being local, the rest of Europe gets about five minutes in her stump speech, which stays closer to home. There are sly digs at the Greens for trying to institute a “Veggie Day” once a week in public cafeterias, barely a mention by name of her Social Democratic rival, Peer Steinbrück, and an awkward dance around a populist demand from Bavaria’s leading conservative to levy fees on foreigners using German autobahns.
With the country going to elections on Sunday, Merkel is warning her supporters against complacency, invoking a “rude awakening” if the votes do not suffice, despite her personal popularity, to build a desirable coalition in Germany’s complex parliamentary system.
At her rallies, the euro is praised as the foundation of Germany’s prosperity, while it is emphasised that a united Europe has had almost 70 years of peace - and, she says, “the older ones here know what that means.”
When she glimpses anti-merkel protesters, she tells her fans, “I know they won’t be locked up” for speaking out against austerity that Greeks, Portuguese or Spaniards see as imposed by Berlin.
“Freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, ...all that is Europe,” Merkel said in Düsseldorf last weekend as she fired up 7,000 supporters for the final days of campaigning. “When you look around the world, you know what we have.”
Merkel’s emphasis on freedom may reflect human rights priorities ingrained by a life under communism. She saw that system collapse - an experience she does not want to risk repeating by doling out German money to shore up ill-structured European unity or missing opportunities outside Europe where, an adviser notes, 90% of global growth is occurring. “That is the main task,” he said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to publicly discuss policy.
John C. Kornblum, a former US ambassador to Germany and a close observer of German affairs for more than four decades, sees in Merkel a chancellor who “knows more or less how far she can go with the German public” in terms of propping up European unity.
She “obviously has more sophisticated thoughts than she expresses” and yet “no internal commitment” to the European Union, Kornblum said. “Her basic goals are national,”
It is Germany’s paradox that its European neighbours and American friends are wary of both its dominance and its reluctance to lead. As the fourth-largest economy in the world, known for its strong midsize companies that out-engineer competitors, Germany must look out for fresh trade opportunities. Yet that swiftly generates fear that Germans, seeing European markets shrink, will stake out richer ground in the United States, Latin America and Asia.
For her part, Merkel is clearly fascinated by foreign travel. As an East German, she could only explore the Soviet bloc and would have been permitted to go west for good only as a 60-year-old pensioner.
Merkel is also a keen observer - her eyes scan every room and interlocutor - and she soaks up knowledge that peppers her speeches: South Korea spends 4% of its gross domestic product on research and development, while European Union countries lag behind their goal of 3%; Indonesia skillfully paid down its debt; China might soon view Germany only as the birthplace of Beethoven.
Schwennicke cited six reasons for Merkel’s longevity: She does not overestimate herself, reads people and situations well, cares for power but not its trappings, inspires loyalty in good people, tries not to give away her intentions, and is quick. She is also presiding over a country that, since the World Cup here in 2006, has felt more assertive.
Young Germans in particular are unafraid to fly or wave their national flag. Merkel is the only chancellor they have known since they were 18 and could first vote, and her party has clearly counted on this appeal.