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| Angela Merkelthe the new global Liberal leader ? |
Can Germany, the country that once unleashed Nazism, lead the free
world? The idea that the former home of militarism and nationalism could
become a beacon for human rights and peaceful international cooperation
within one lifetime may seem far-fetched. But with outsider Donald
Trump’s election as US president and the rising strength of far-right
and populist movements in Europe, some have suggested that German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is left as the last powerful defender of
liberal values in the West.
Since taking office in 2005, Merkel has been a fixture of the
international summit circuit, often providing the only dash of color in
row upon row of grey suits. She has outlasted most of her
contemporaries, save for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and won
plaudits for successfully steering her country through the turmoil of
the global financial crisis.
Along the way, the trained physicist has deftly maintained relations
with allies as they gained new leaders, including prime ministers and
presidents whose positions were very different from her own. Merkel
navigated embarrassing moments, too, such as when US President George W
Bush caused her to recoil in shock by playfully rubbing her neck at a G8
summit in 2006 and after former Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi was quoted making sexually explicit comments about her.
Merkel’s relationship with US President Barack Obama hit a stumbling
block when it was revealed that the National Security Agency had been
monitoring her cellphone, but both leaders weathered the strain. Peter
Tauber, the general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union
party, noted that the uncertainty surrounding another country’s new
administration usually makes people think “cooperation won’t work
anymore.”
With the German chancellor having demonstrated otherwise, “there is a
certain opinion that maybe it would be good if Angela Merkel would
remain as an anchor of stability among the statesmen of the Western
world,” Tauber said. Merkel departed from the usual diplomatic script
after Trump’s election last week by suggesting that respect for liberal
values was a precondition for Berlin’s continued good relations with
Washington. Many commentators saw her remarks as a sign that the
chancellor was thrusting Germany into the forefront of international
politics.
As if to drive home her point, Merkel repeated Monday that Germany was
prepared to “protect the dignity of every person, and that’s independent
of religion, origin, sexual orientation, gender or other attributes.”
Obama himself reinforced the image of passing the baton to Merkel by
choosing to spend two days in Berlin during his final foreign trip as
president, and declaring that the German chancellor had “probably been
my closest international partner these past eight years.”
Rather than bid farewell to Europe in Paris, the capital of America’s
oldest ally, or in Britain-which prides itself on a having a “special
relationship” with Washington, Obama’s choice signals recognition that
the heart of the old continent now lies in Berlin. The leaders of
Europe’s other major powers- Britain, France, Italy and Spain-will meet
Obama in the German capital Friday, a day after he confers at length
with Merkel.
“The phrase ‘leader of the free world’ is usually applied to the
president of the United States, and rarely without irony,” Timothy
Garton Ash, a historian and professor of European studies at Oxford
University, wrote Friday in Britain’s left-leaning Guardian newspaper.
“I’m tempted to say that the leader of the free world is now Angela
Merkel.”
Yet skeptics point out that Merkel may not be suited to rally the West.
Her decision last year to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of
thousands of people fleeing war and poverty was seized upon by European
nationalists and featured prominently in Britain’s debate over quitting
the European Union, which the ‘leave’ camp narrowly won.
European allies blame her for earlier stoking popular unrest by
insisting on the need to cut public spending during the continent’s debt
crisis. And in Ukraine, Merkel’s recent efforts to maintain a united
European front in the face of Russian aggression are looking
increasingly fragile. Domestically, Merkel is battling a new nationalist
foe in the form of Alternative for Germany, a party that has surged in
popularity by railing against refugees. Rather than confronting the
party head-on, Merkel has instead stuck to her measured mantra of “We
will manage.”
“Germany can’t replace the United States as the leader of the free
world,” Josef Braml, an expert on international affairs at the German
Council on Foreign Relations, said. “At best, it can protect Europe from
nationalist tendencies and remind America that the liberal world order
it established is also in the economic interests of the United States.
That’s something the new businessman in the White House should be able
to understand.”
Close allies say Merkel-who is expected to declare her intention to run
for a fourth term in the coming days-is conscious both of her
responsibility and the limits of her power. “She is absolutely
determined, willing and ready to contribute to strengthen the
international liberal order,” said Norbert Roettgen, the head of the
German Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “But we can’t see the
chancellor of Germany as last man standing. This will only work
together, within Europe, and if we can have the backing of the
trans-Atlantic alliance.”
For now, German officials are hoping Trump, who called Merkel’s
immigration policy “a catastrophe” while campaigning, will tone down his
rhetoric once he’s inaugurated. They are conscious that Berlin is in no
position to solve problems such as climate change and crises in the
Middle East without American help.
In the meantime, Germany hopes that its post-war history will at least
serve as an example to other nations. “Our country embodies, perhaps
more than any other country in the world, the experience that war can
become peace, division can become reconciliation, and that the mania of
nationalism and ideology can eventually be replaced by political
sanity,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said
Wednesday.
Donald Trump election puts pressure on Angela Merkel to take liberal lead | The Indian Express
