D I P L O M AT I C A | DIPLOMATIC AGENDA
The legacy of Angela Merkel
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three Cs (children, cooking and church,) the young scientist from Eastern Germany rose steadily through the political ranks in the 1990s. She made the hard choices when her party was being torn apart by a sponsorship scandal. She took over its reins when it was down and out. (These are, by the way, often the moments when women have been allowed to take positions of power). And, to the surprise and dismay of many of her male competitors who had seen Angela Merkel as a transitional solution, she stayed. She stayed, rebuilt and led her party to four consecutive victories. She answered the question of whether women can run Germany once and for all. Merkel steered the country with a steady hand through an era of upsets and crises. The financial meltdown in 2008, the Euro-crisis, the hardening relationship with Russia, a complex transatlantic period under then-U.S. president Donald Trump, the new assertiveness of China, the obvious reality of climate change and its consequences, the pandemic and the migration crisis.
Angela Merkel stepped down last autumn after 16 years as Germany’s chancellor. Children in Germany have been known to ask if it’s possible to become chancellor if you’re a man.
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undisputed prima inter pares in the FIR European Union wasser ar Sp and an outstandE: M NA LAST ing international an Germ CITIZENSHIP: leader within the OR:: AD SS BA G7, the G20 and AM NAMED AS the world. 17 20 , Aug. 31 ) 06 After four 20 300 (2 BS: Ottawa PREVIOUS JO unusually de) 13 (2009-20 manding terms and Toronto in office, she has decided not to run again in a rare case of a leader who leaves office voluntarily, at the time of her own hildren in Germany have been making and in her manner of choice. known to ask their parents: is it Many people are sad to see her go; she possible for a man to become chanrepresented reliability and constancy in cellor in Germany? Not an unreasonable a turbulent time, a voice of reason and question if you were born after the turn of science. She was “the adult in the room” the millennium. and, certainly, a chancellor for the history For 16 years, from 2005 to 2021, Angela books. Merkel has been at the helm of governShe was Germany’s first female chanment in Germany. She has led the most cellor. In a country and a party that had populous and prosperous country of defined women longer than others by the the EU and became, over the years, the
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