Merkel’s footsteps

from Dr. Chennamaneni Ramesh

Angela Markel’s presence as a Protestant, scientist, GDR woman at the head of the CDU, a male-dominated, predominantly Catholic party with West German roots, has not only changed her party, but probably also German society. Her policies have influenced European and international affairs so much that she will go down in history as a very special leader.

Chancellor Merkel is Germany’s first political leader who has contributed to making the deeply traditional Christian-Democratic Union “one of the pillars of the new German consensusâ€, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. This, in turn, has led to new political directions in her last four 16-year terms, from economic and social programs, European and international relations, refugee issues, minimum wages, energy reform to family and women’s rights – including the recent decision to introduce women’s quotas in boardrooms .

George Packer, a US journalist, writes: “You don’t have to win every argument. She doesn’t have to have the last word. She quietly assesses the various factors of a situation and then decides which way to go, quietly and without fanfare. It’s a different political style that the Germans didn’t know until Merkel. “

DDR background

Merkel’s parents, Horst and Herlind Kasner, met in Hamburg, where her father was a theology student and her mother was a Latin and English teacher. After completing his training, her father took a pastor’s position in Quitzow, Brandenburg, and the family moved to the GDR a few weeks after Merkel’s birth. In 1957 they moved back to Templin, where Merkel graduated from high school in 1973. In the same year she went to Leipzig to study physics at the Karl Marx University (today Leipzig University). After completing her master’s degree in 1978, she worked as a faculty member at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. In 1986 she received her doctorate with a thesis on quantum chemistry.

With the entry of Mikhail Gorbachev as party leader in the Soviet Union and his politics of Perestroika and Glasnost, a movement for self-determination and democracy gradually began in many Eastern European countries. This peaceful revolution eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Merkel, who took an active part in this movement, joined the newly founded Democratic Awakening Party and became the party’s press spokeswoman in February 1990.

She later joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany and won a seat in the Bundestag in the first election after the fall of the Wall in December 1990 as a representative of Stralsund-Rügen-Grimmen. In January 1991 she was appointed Minister for Women and Youth by Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kohl’s choice of young political newcomers from the GDR hit several demographics and earned Merkel the nickname “Kohl’s Girl”. After the reunified German elections in 1994, Merkel became Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and from March to April 1995 chaired the first United Nations climate conference in Berlin.

Climate Chancellor

Merkel was elected Chancellor in 2005 as head of a “grand coalition” of the CDU and the rival SPD. In 2007 she hosted the World Economic Summit of the G8 industrialized countries. “I have been fighting for climate protection for over ten years and consider it a tough fight,” said Merkel in an interview before the G8 summit. When asked about US President George W. Bush’s reservations about a 2 ° C warming limit, she said: “You can be sure that I will not water down trustworthy scientific findings such as that of the IPCC.”

Finally, she convinced the G8 heads of state and government to accept the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and got them to agree to the need for a binding CO. Directive₂ Reduction targets or Merkel has also successfully convinced the EU to adopt emission reduction targets. The German press calls her “Climate Chancellor”.

Merkel’s style of government is characterized by pragmatism, but critics criticize the lack of a clear stance and ideology. She showed her willingness to take the positions of her political opponents if they proved sensible and popular. A notable example was her decision to phase out nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident in 2011, after having passed a law extending the life of German nuclear power plants just two years earlier. After a landmark ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, your government proposed bringing the national target date for climate neutrality forward to 2045. This remains one of her notable accomplishments.

Brilliance in economic reforms

When the global economic crisis began to emerge in 2008, Merkel used it as an opportunity, in contrast to other European heads of state and government. She skilfully fended off a long-term recession in Germany by introducing stimulus packages and cuts in working hours, in which workers worked less, but their income was topped up by the state and not by the company. As a result, Germany flourished during the crisis (also supported by other favorable conditions such as low bond rates and Germany’s strong export position).

In Germany, the share of industry in gross value added is 22.9%, making it the highest among the G7 countries. The strongest sectors are vehicle construction, the electrical industry, mechanical engineering and the chemical industry. Along with China and the USA, Germany is one of the three largest export nations. In 2017 it exported goods worth 1,278.9 billion euros.

In terms of the importance of foreign trade for gross domestic product, Germany is the most open economy among the G7 countries. The foreign trade quota is currently 84.4% – that is the sum of imports and exports in relation to GDP. In comparison, the US rate is 26.7%. The most interesting development towards the almost full employment state of Germany is the fact that medium-sized companies form the heart of the economy, i.e. companies with an annual turnover of less than 50 million euros and fewer than 500 employees. This branch of industry comprises 99.6% of German companies. More than 1,000 of these companies are so-called hidden champions, i.e., publicly less known international market leaders.

Merkel’s handling of the eurozone debt crisis, however, led to criticism of an approach that many felt was too strict. In fact, even Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund, who is largely in favor of austerity, drew attention to the damage that tough austerity measures could do to an already damaged economy. But the front runner in Europe’s most populous and economically strongest country continued to enjoy strong national approval ratings.

Refugee crisis

Merkel also faced the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, when hundreds of thousands of migrants poured into the European Union fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere. More than a million migrants came to Germany in 2015, and Merkel’s party paid a heavy political price for its attitude towards refugees. When the backlash against migrants manifested itself in street protests and at the ballot boxes, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) was one of the parties that benefited from the increasing wave of populism and xenophobia. In September 2016, the AfD took second place in the state elections in Merkel’s home state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – ahead of the CDU – but Merkel continued to steer towards the center when she announced that she was aiming for a fourth term. In this competition, Merkel won her fourth term as Chancellor. She was considered “the woman who saved the dignity of Europe”.

This decision was crucial for Merkel. As populists maneuvered to use the issue to their advantage, she saw it as the moment of truth for Christian democracy. Many Germans believe that they have a strong set of values ​​and they know German history very well, also because it comes from the GDR. In this context, it is the Hitler regime, World War II and the Holocaust, the division of the German nation, decades of the Cold War and its effects on millions of people.

Abolition of conscription

This is celebrated as a historic decision by the Germans and the international community. After more than 50 years, the Bundeswehr abolished conscription in July 2011 in order to reduce the troop strength from around 2.40,000 soldiers to a professional and significantly fitter army of 1.70,000. It was enforced by the then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg with Merkel’s backing despite the resistance of conservative politicians. The Bundeswehr now has a childcare service and flexible working hours, which underscores Merkel’s support for family life.

Parental allowance

In 2007 Merkel’s government introduced parental allowance to support couples with children. It is the German version of maternity benefit, but it is available to every parent and is intended to reduce the financial burden on families and the very low birth rate in Germany. The tax-financed system enables parents to free themselves up to 14 months after the birth of a child and to pay up to 67% of their salary during that time. Merkel vigorously fought the opponents of parental allowance in her own conservative alliance, declared it one of the cornerstones of her government policy and, in particular, defended the right of men to parental leave. Politics has a major impact on family life in Germany, especially the lives of working mothers.

minimum wage

It was driven by her coalition partners, the Social Democrats, but it is still thanks to Merkel that a minimum wage was introduced under her supervision after years of campaigning to alleviate social injustice. The hourly rate of € 8.50 was introduced on January 1, 2015 and has played a positive role in overcoming growing social divisions and addressing growing wage inequality. It also aimed to raise the wages of those who effectively weathered a wage freeze, as employers argued that low wages were necessary for German companies to maintain competitive advantage.

Foreign policy

Merkel scored points in her foreign policy efforts and most recently ensured a constant dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Crimean dispute. Thanks to her East German upbringing, she knows Russian culture well and speaks excellent Russian. She has stressed to other Western leaders that too much pressure on him could plunge Russia into political and economic chaos, which would not be good for Russia, Germany or Europe.

During her chancellorship, Germany grew into a foreign policy role that post-war Germany never dreamed of: a foreign policy actor, central balancing factor in Europe, leadership of the European Union. India and Germany have a “Strategic partnership†since 2001, which has been further strengthened by intergovernmental consultations at the level of the heads of government.

(The author is MLA and Humboldt expert for agriculture, environment and cooperation)