we'll miss you, Angela
well readers, the week we feared has come to pass - the german people held a national election this week to choose the successor to the great, the amazing, the angelic Angela Merkel. we know, we know, we’re starting to get kinda creepy in our affection for her, but seriously - she’s awesome. let’s dig in -
who is Angela Merkel?
hold on, we need to find a new audience if our readers don’t already know who she is :P
Merkel has been germany’s second longest serving chancellor (on her way in december to being the longest) since 2005, a stunningly long period which has seen three US presidents, five british prime ministers, and basically zero wins for any detroit area professional sports league.
she grew up in east germany under communist rule, and became the first chancellor to govern a unified germany from that part of the country. after earning a PhD in quantum chemistry (yes, she’s that smart), she refused to join the Stasi and spy on her fellow countrymen. after the berlin wall fell and germany was reunified, she joined a political party as a spokesperson, and quickly rose through the ranks of the german political machine. in the first democratic elections in 1990, Merkel won a seat in parliament and was appointed to the cabinet by her mentor, the then chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Angela, before she found her current stylist
how did she rise to power?
well, like any politician, with a good deal of smarts, savvy, and backstabbing. turns out politicians across the pond aren’t all that different from the ones here in the US, huh? anyways, she continued rising through the ranks of cabinet and her party (the CDU) through the 1990s, until 2000. the CDU became embroiled in a funding scandal, and Angela ensured her mentor and CDU head, Helmut Kohl, took the blame by publicly calling for a change in leadership.
in 2000, Angela became head of the CDU, and she won the chancellorship in 2005. this rise comes in spite, and largely because of, the differences between german and most western politics. Merkel is famously uncharismatic, untelegenic, and frankly - boring. that’s not to say she isn’t caring, competent, or a fantastic leader, but that germans prioritize actions over words ever since Adolf was in charge (and thank God for that).
so why do we love her so darn much?
well, where should we start? aside from her fab bowl haircut, she’s been at the helm in germany throughout a series of potentially crippling crises - the global recession, the near collapse of the Euro, the rise of the neo-Nazism and the far right, the syrian civil war, brexit, and now COVID-19. no other modern politician - democratically elected or otherwise - has faced down such a number of problems and continued to win elections. she is the first german chancellor ever to resign on her terms instead of being forced out of office because of a scandal or losing an election. Angela took principled stances on unpopular issues - such as allowing in more than a million syrian refugees - out of nothing more than understanding what the morally right move would be.
asylum applications to live in germany since 2010
now, not everything is happy go lucky, of course. Merkel continues to face criticism that she didn’t tackle tomorrow’s crises, from climate change to the digital economy to rising authoritarianism in eastern europe. however, even her critics have to admit that she’s had her hands full for the past sixteen years, and few (if any) german politicians were paying attention to those issues either. Merkel’s CDU lost the election this week, signaling the german public is ready for a change, even though her personal popularity levels remain sky high.
auf wiedersehen, Angela. we like you so much, we may even consider learning how to say that without butchering the pronunciation.