(CNN)It’s a lesson many politicians — mostly male — have learned the hard way over the past 15 years: never underestimate Angela Merkel.
The German Chancellor is preparing to step down later this year, having long ago cemented her position as one of the world’s most successful political leaders. In her time in office, she has dealt with five UK prime ministers, four French presidents and seven Italian prime ministers. When President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday, he’ll be the fourth American commander-in-chief she’s worked with.
How Angela Merkel went from lame duck to global leader on coronavirusYet despite her track record, Merkel, the leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy, has spent much of her political career having to prove herself.
Her counterparts have tried to overpower or even humiliate her. Vladimir Putin once brought a Labrador dog into his meeting with the Chancellor who is famously afraid of dogs. Donald Trump told her she was stupid. Silvio Berlusconi once left her waiting for 15 minutes while he chatted on the phone.Read MoreWhen she became the first woman to take Germany’s top job in 2005, many deemed her too inexperienced and uncharismatic to last. Bild, Germany’s most-read newspaper, marked the occasion with a front-page photo and a headline reading “Miss Germany!” Even within her own party, she was referred to as “das Mädchen,” German for “the girl.” But while other leaders have come and gone over the intervening years, Merkel has endured, enjoying an unparalleled popularity. “Das Mädchen” became nicknamed “die Mutti,” a mother figure and symbol of stability.Political scientist Joyce Mushaben, said Merkel was seen as a “temporary” leader when she first rose through the ranks of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.Many of her male rivals had been mired in scandal, and there was a feeling that “she was just going to be holding that place until they could find a real CDU man to replace her,” Mushaben said. “They completely underestimated her learning ability.” Merkel ended up leading the party for 18 years, stepping down in late 2018. It soon became clear just how difficult it will be to replace her. Merkel’s handpicked successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer lasted just over a year, struggling to keep the regional fractions of the party in line.This weekend, the party picked Armin Laschet as her successor. Laschet, a long time Merkel ally currently serving as the Minister-president of the federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia, won with 52.79% (521 votes), beating Friedrich Merz, a corporate lawyer, who obtained 47.21% (466 votes). Laschet will lead the party into the federal election in September. His election was a clear vote in favor of the continuation of Merkel’s moderate politics. Mushaben, a Merkel biographer and professor of comparative politics and gender studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the key to Merkel’s success lay in the unique mix of her background and her abilities. Her experience of growing up as a pastor’s daughter in Communist East Germany has deeply influenced her political decision-making, and as a former scientist with a doctorate in quantum chemistry, she often approaches problems in the same way as complex calculations, Mushaben said. When her political mentor Helmut Kohl became tangled in a corruption scandal in 1999, she publicly denounced him and called for him to go, despite having been his long-time protege.
Merkel pleads with Germans to avoid a 'last Christmas with the grandparents,' as country smashes daily death record”People saw her as a person of integrity, someone who didn’t just grab the mic and shoot off her mouth, but someone who waited until she really had something to say,” Mushaben added.As well as being the first woman to become chancellor, Merkel was also the first politician from the former East Germany to take the post following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Merkel referenced this part of her background recently, when pushing for more coronavirus restrictions, admitting that as someone who sees the freedom to travel as a hard-won right, she was uneasy about the new rules, but explained why they were necessary.Corinna Hoerst, senior fellow and deputy director at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, said Merkel has been a new type of leader. “She exudes empathy, stability and reliability,” Hoerst said. “That’s unique and it has redefined, in some ways, what people are looking for in a leader, because it’s so opposed to any of the sort of male stereotypes that we had.”
The world’s crisis manager
Even her staunchest critics admit that Merkel has special powers when it comes to handling crises, having seen Germany through the global financial crisis, the Eurozone debt crisis, and the immigration crisis; with months to go before she steps down, she remains at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. She has often acted as the voice of reason, and as a maker of deals. Political scientists describe her as “calm,” “pragmatic,” and “diplomatic.” Some might even add “boring” to the mix.”There’s nothing glamorous about her,” said Gabriele Abels, a professor of comparative politics at the University of Tübingen, Germany. “She is very … matter of fact, very rational and people would never think of her as being corrupt.”Abels said Merkel embodies what most Germans look for in a leader: “While we sometimes look at other countries which have more of the charismatic leaders, we don’t want these for ourselves, we’ve had enough of that in history.”
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to delegates of her political party, the Christian Democratic Union, in February 2018.Hide Caption 1 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1954, but she grew up in East Germany. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a Lutheran minister and her mother, Herlind, was an English teacher.Hide Caption 2 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel, left, attends a New Year’s Eve party with friends in Berlin in 1972. In 1977, at the age of 23, she married her first husband, Ulrich Merkel. They divorced in 1982, but she kept the name.Hide Caption 3 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel poses with her siblings, Marcus and Irene Kasner.Hide Caption 4 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel visits a children’s home during her campaign to become a member of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, in 1990. Before turning to politics, Merkel had trained as a physician. She was also a spokeswoman for the “Democratic Awakening,” East Germany’s opposition movement before reunification.Hide Caption 5 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelA month after being elected to the Bundestag, Merkel was appointed to Germany’s Cabinet in January 1991. Chancellor Helmut Kohl named her Minister for Women and Youth.Hide Caption 6 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel looks at Kohl during a conference of the Christian Democratic Union, their political party, in 1991. At the time, Merkel was a deputy chairwoman for the party.Hide Caption 7 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel changed Cabinet positions in 1994, becoming Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Here, she visits a water-control station in Bad Honnef, Germany, in 1995.Hide Caption 8 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel, as the country’s leader on environmental issues, irons wrapping paper to show how it can be recycled.Hide Caption 9 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel and Health Minister Horst Seehofer attend a Cabinet meeting in 1995.Hide Caption 10 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel sits in a “strandkorb,” or beach basket, in an undated photo. In 2000, Merkel became the Christian Democratic Union’s first female chairperson. It was the opposition party at the time.Hide Caption 11 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel, left, attends the opening of the Wagner Festival, an annual music festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in 2001.Hide Caption 12 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel spends part of her summer in Langballig, Germany, in 2002.Hide Caption 13 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002, one of many meetings they would have over the years. Merkel speaks Russian fluently, while Putin speaks German.Hide Caption 14 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel speaks in Nuremberg, Germany, ahead of federal elections in 2005.Hide Caption 15 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel is sworn in as Germany’s first female chancellor in November 2005.Hide Caption 16 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel visits the White House in January 2006. A few days later she also visited the Kremlin in Russia.Hide Caption 17 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelUS President George W. Bush shows off a barrel of pickled herrings he was presented after arriving in Stralsund, Germany, in July 2006.Hide Caption 18 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel visits troops stationed in Turkey in February 2013. Later that year she was re-elected for a third term.Hide Caption 19 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, walk with US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama before a dinner in Berlin in June 2013. Merkel and Sauer have been married since 1998.Hide Caption 20 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel speaks to Obama on the sidelines of a G7 summit near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in June 2015.Hide Caption 21 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015. Time Editor-at-Large Karl Vick described her as “the de factos leader of the European Union” by virtue of being leader of the EU’s largest and most economically powerful member state. Twice that year, he said, the EU had faced “existential crises” that Merkel had taken the lead in navigating — first the Greek debt crisis faced by the eurozone, and then the ongoing migrant crisis.Hide Caption 22 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel and Obama test a virtual-reality headset at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in April 2016.Hide Caption 23 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference at the White House in March 2017.Hide Caption 24 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel raises her glass during a toast at the Trudering Festival in Munich, Germany, in May 2017.Hide Caption 25 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel records her annual televised New Year’s address in December 2017.Hide Caption 26 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelIn this photo provided by the German Government Press Office, Merkel talks with Trump as they are surrounded by other leaders at the G7 summit in June 2018. According to two senior diplomatic sources, the photo was taken when there was a difficult conversation taking place regarding the G7’s communique and several issues the United States had leading up to it.Hide Caption 27 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel attends a Bundestag session in June 2018. She pressed lawmakers to back a tough but humane asylum and migration policy for the European Union.Hide Caption 28 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelIn this handout photo provided by the German Government Press Office in July 2018, Merkel meets a newborn calf during a visit to the Trede family dairy farm in Nienborstel, Germany.Hide Caption 29 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel offers flowers to Volker Bouffier, the state premier of Hesse and the deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, ahead of a party leadership meeting in October 2018. The day before, her coalition government suffered heavy losses in a key regional election in Hesse.Hide Caption 30 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel speaks at a debate on the future of Europe during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in November 2018. Merkel made a call for a future European army and for a European Security Council that would centralize defense and security policy on the continent.Hide Caption 31 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel touches the scepter of a Carnival prince during the annual Carnival reception in Berlin in February 2019.Hide Caption 32 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel poses for photos with students as she visits a secondary school in Berlin in April 2019.Hide Caption 33 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel talks with European Council President Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Theresa May at a roundtable meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in April 2019. May was in Brussels to formally present her case for a short Brexit delay.Hide Caption 34 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelBritain’s Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prime Minister Theresa May, greets Merkel in Portsmouth, England, in June 2019. It was ahead of an event marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.Hide Caption 35 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelMerkel and new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspect a military honor guard as he arrives for his first official visit to Germany in June 2019. Merkel was seen shaking during the ceremony, but she later suggested dehydration was to blame and said that she was doing “very well.”Hide Caption 36 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelThe hands of Merkel and Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne are seen as they listen to national anthems in Berlin in July 2019. Merkel’s body visibly shook again, raising concerns over her health. She said she was fine and that she has been “working through some things” since she was first seen shaking in June.Hide Caption 37 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelRain drops cover the window of a car as Merkel arrives for the opening of the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin, in July 2019. The James-Simon-Galerie is the new central entrance building for Berlin’s historic Museums Island.Hide Caption 38 of 39
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela MerkelIn a rare televised message, Merkel tells the German people that the coronavirus pandemic is the nation’s gravest crisis since World War II.Hide Caption 39 of 39
Hoerst said Merkel’s particular strength in recent years has been in building consensus and leading from the middle. “It’s kind of funny that women are seen as, you know, ‘Oh, she’s so emotional,’ but actually, it has been the men who are highly emotional, whether it’s Boris Johnson or President Trump, while Chancellor Merkel has been diplomatic and determined not just to forge ahead but to get everybody around the idea,” she said. Merkel’s determination to find an agreement has paid off during some of the biggest crises of the past decade. She was able to broker a deal between the Eurozone and Greece, and convinced Russia and Ukraine’s top officials to talk to one another.As a former scientist and environmental minister, she also put climate center from the beginning of her leadership. She presided over the very first UN Climate Conference in Berlin and convinced the other leaders of G8 to accept the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. “She even got George Bush to admit that there was a climate change problem; she was a great mediator,” Mushaben said.But the leading by consensus hasn’t always worked. Late last year, she struggled to convince the leaders of Germany’s federal states to implement stricter nationwide coronavirus restrictions when infection levels began to rise. And as the rotating President of the Council of the European Union in the past six months, she has struggled to find a consensus with Hungary and Poland over their adherence to the EU’s rule of law.
‘We can manage this’
There were also times when Merkel didn’t go looking for a compromise, most notably in 2015 when she welcomed refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria and elsewhere. “Politically persecuted people have the right to asylum. We can be proud of the humanity of our Basic Law … we also grant protection to all those who flee to us from wars,” she told the German people that summer. “I put it simply: Germany is a strong country. The motive with which we approach these things must be: We have achieved so much — we can do it!,” Merkel said.”To me that’s her most memorable moment, that three-week period in 2015 where she made the decision to fight all the people in her cabinet and the chief for the federal police and the border guards, they all said don’t do it and she said, ‘If we can save the banks, we can save the human beings,'” Mushaben said.Hoerst agrees that that decision will form a major part of Merkel’s legacy.
Angela Merkel stands in 'solidarity' with congresswomen attacked by Trump”It was a humanistic thing to do and it was the right thing to do,” she said. “She empowered German citizens who felt empathy for refugees but maybe haven’t been active, and she gave them the recognition and the support so that locally they organized and opened their houses.”Many criticized the move, particularly after an estimated 1.2 million people arrived in Germany within the next year and half. The large influx initially caused some problems, and boosted far-right anti-immigration parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). But that sentiment appears to have been temporary — the AfD has since faded in the polls, and the policy of welcoming in refugees and migrants is starting to pay off economically. Like many other European countries, Germany is facing a demographic time bomb, with too many retirees and not enough workers. According to Germany’s Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research, 49% of the working-age refugees who have arrived in the country since 2013 were employed as of February last year. More than half of those were in skilled jobs and more than two-thirds were in full-time work. Another 17% were in paid training programs and 3% were in paid internships. According to the research, most of the remaining were either studying, actively looking for jobs or on maternity or parental leave. Some 85% have taken German language courses.
In this photo provided by the German Government Press Office, Merkel deliberates with Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada.
What’s next?
Merkel has repeatedly rejected the idea of running for a fifth term and most commentators believe she will stick to that promise. “Even her decision to run for the fourth term was very hesitant, but she saw Putin behaving badly and she saw the election of Trump and she said, ‘Okay, I’m the only grown up left on the stage,'” Mushaben said.This time around, Merkel appears determined to step back. “I don’t think she will take up any other position, I think that she will actually retire and just enjoy doing the things she has hardly been able to do in the last 20, 30 years,” Abels said. According to Mushaben, the outgoing Chancellor has previously said that she is looking forward to spending more time cooking plum cake and her famous potato soup, indicating she isn’t planning a big speaking tour or another position.
But even if she retires completely, she will continue to influence the world for a long time to come. “In the future, it will be very difficult to argue that a woman cannot be a successful leader, and that’s a very important message to tell,” Abels said.
Source: edition.cnn.com
