The ‘Muti’ Merkel era, the youngest in 16 years… “I miss you already”

The era of German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes to an end after 16 years in Germany as the Bundestag general elections are held on the 26th (local time).

Since it is difficult for a single party to form a single government in Germany due to the nature of the electoral system, negotiations for a coalition government may take some time even after the general election is over.

Merkel became the first woman in German history to resign as Chancellor from East Germany in 2005, and after serving 16 years, she became the first chancellor to resign.

Chancellor Merkel, the daughter of a pastor and an ordinary East German physicist, entered politics through the Democratic Uprising (DA), one of the former East German political groups that joined the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall. served as a spokesperson for the government.

After reunification, she was elected to the Bundestag by the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and was called ‘Kol’s adopted daughter,’ and served as Minister of Women and Youth in 1991, Minister of Environment in 1994, and Secretary-General of the CDU.

In 1999, she broke up with former Prime Minister Cole, who was caught up in a slush fund scandal, and asked to retire from politics.

After that, he was nominated as a candidate for Prime Minister of the CDU and was elected Prime Minister in 2005.

After taking office, he served four consecutive terms, winning the 2009 general election, the 2013 general election and the 2017 general election. He then voluntarily announced that he would not run for the next general election at the end of 2018.

If he remains prime minister until December 19, as negotiations for the coalition have been prolonged, he will break the record for the longest in history.

In 2005, Chancellor Merkel concluded a grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) for the first time since 1966, and since then led the coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) three times, except in 2009, when she was in alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP).

He has demonstrated so-called ‘Mutti (mother) leadership’, taking a pragmatic approach to each issue regardless of political line, but always carefully listening to the opinions of German citizens, making compromises, compromises, and making prudent decisions.

Based on this, it is evaluated that it has successfully responded to crises such as the global financial crisis in 2008, the European debt crisis in 2010-2011 and 2015, the European refugee crisis in 2015, and the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis in 2020.

In particular, at the time of the European refugee crisis in 2015, when more than one million refugees flooded the continent due to the Syrian civil war, he showed great leadership in accepting refugees without a cap under the slogan “We can do it”.

During the European debt crisis, he put the brakes on bailouts and earned the nickname ‘Madam Noh’, but he prevented the final collapse of the European Union (EU) by saying, “If the euro fails, Europe will also fail.”

Even during the COVID-19 crisis, Chancellor Merkel contributed to maintaining the EU’s unity even in Brexit by concluding a joint purchase and procurement of a COVID-19 vaccine in the EU.

▲ Introduction of the minimum wage ▲ Allowing same-sex marriage ▲ Proclamation to phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022 is also evaluated as contributing to the progress of German society.

After Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2018, he served as the ‘last bastion’ of Western liberal democracy on behalf of the United States. Within the European Union (EU), he has demonstrated such a strong leadership that “I already miss Chancellor Merkel”.

Merkel’s approval rating is the highest among major European leaders, both inside and outside Europe, which gave birth to a joke that the Merkel generation born during her 16-year tenure in office believes that only women can do it.

The results of a survey conducted by YouGov, a polling company, in six countries last month, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

However, according to the polling institute Allensbach, 66% of German voters want a regime change, which is higher than in 2005 (45%) or 1998 (50%).

Sabine Kropp, professor of political science at the University of Free Berlin, told ZDF, “Merkel is the first female prime minister and the first East German chancellor to manage the government calmly during difficult times and succeed in gaining trust.” The next government will have to put more emphasis on the big future tasks, such as such, because they can’t be solved by procrastination.”

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