Merkel takes centre stage in EU’s year of crises

In a year of crises for Europe, from the
Ukraine war to Greece’s debt turmoil to
the historic refugee influx, Germany’s
Angela Merkel emerged as the
continent’s de facto leader, drawing
more praise and fire than ever.
Whether spearheading EU diplomacy
with Moscow, bargaining with Athens
over tough bail-out terms or responding
to the world’s biggest refugee wave since
World War II — Merkel was in the
middle, again and again.
At a time of growing uncertainty and
division in Europe, the pragmatic
quantum chemist whom Germans call
“Mutti”, or mummy, preached fiscal
rectitude and humanitarian principles,
often drawing a mixed response.
Her unusually bold move to throw open
Germany’s doors to Syrian refugees has
particularly battered her long-stellar poll
ratings at home, and left the leader of
Europe’s top economy isolated on key
issues in the 28-member EU.
“2015 has been an incredible year, hard
to comprehend really,” said the 61-year-
old chancellor, who is not usually given
to hyperbole, at a congress of her centre-
right party this month.
“I’ve never experienced such a rapid
sequence of highly significant events.”
That was quite a statement for the
Protestant pastor’s daughter, who grew
up behind the Iron Curtain and lived
through the fall of the Berlin Wall a
quarter-century ago.
– ‘We can do this’ –
The rise of Germany’s influence during
Merkel’s decade in power has often
unsettled European neighbours.
When an unyielding Merkel told debt-hit
eurozone members to slash public
spending, she was caricatured as an
austerity dominatrix in Nazi garb who
deployed accountants rather than tanks.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi,
more politely, stressed that while he had
esteem for Merkel, “Europe has to serve
all 28 countries, not just one.”
Merkel won over some of her harshest
critics with her decision in September to
open the doors to a record wave of
refugees who were heading in, many on
foot, from Budapest.
The country that once sent rail carriage-
loads of people into concentration camps
was now cheering as trains arrived
packed with refugees from war-torn
Syria, in moving TV footage seen around
the world.
“We can do this,” has been Merkel’s
mantra ever since, as she has sought to
instill courage in a country scrambling
to welcome the one million newcomers
who arrived this year.
Merkel was hailed as “Mama Merkel” by
refugees who flocked to take selfies with
her, and pictured as a Mother Teresa
figure on the cover of Spiegel magazine.
In rare unanimity, media organisations
including Agence France-Presse, Time
magazine and the Financial Times
declared the long-time “Queen of
Europe” the world’s most influential
person of 2015.
New York Times columnist Roger Cohen
wrote that “she has become a towering
European figure, certainly the equal of
such postwar German giants as Konrad
Adenauer, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut
Kohl — perhaps even surpassing them”.
Even Greece’s left-wing former finance
minister Yanis Varoufakis, long the arch-
nemesis of Berlin, told news weekly
Stern that “maybe, if I was German, I
would vote for Merkel”.
– ‘Historic challenge’ –
Many Germans, however, now have
doubts, fearing that Merkel, their trusted
guarantor of stability, is plunging the
country into chaos.
Polls point to growing fears about the
influx of mostly Muslims, a right-wing
populist party has been gathering steam
and there has been a spike in racist hate
crimes.
“Germany is definitely split,” said Oskar
Niedermayer of Berlin’s Free University.
“In general, Merkel and her work are
still very highly regarded, but on the
refugee crisis a majority think she is
pursuing the wrong policy.”
Merkel’s plan to avoid a million more
arrivals next year is based in large part
on convincing other EU members to
accept more refugees.
Yet the response so far has ranged from
deafening silence to howls of protest.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
rejected Germany’s “moral imperialism”
and sealed national borders with razor
wire, while Czech Prime Minister
Bohuslav Sobotka charged that Merkel
had “encouraged illegal migration” to
Europe.
Even European Council president Donald
Tusk labelled Merkel’s migrants policy
“dangerous”.
At the party congress, Merkel conceded
that the refugee influx — “a rendezvous
with globalisation” — presented an
“enormous” task and would change the
country forever.
“It is a historic challenge for Europe, and
I say we want Europe to meet this
challenge,” she said, to thundering
applause. “And I am convinced it will.”
Niedermayer said that Merkel, in her
best speech so far, had “bought herself a
few months, but not more” while voters
and her own party base would likely
grow more impatient.
“That’s why 2016 will be the true acid
test.”