Opinion | Angela Merkel: in praise of Germany’s no-nonsense leader

Germany’s first woman chancellor is expected to step down this year after 16 years at the helm. She will be remembered for projecting humility, balance, stability and simple common sense at a time when the West seemed adrift

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Angela Merkel talks to then US president Donald Trump, surrounded by other G7 leaders, during a summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, on June 9, 2018. The photo went viral on social media, spawning a plethora of memes. Photo: AFP/Bundesregierung

Published: 2:30am, 19 Jun 2021Updated: 5:04am, 19 Jun 2021

We criticise more than praise. Good news is no news. Fiery or flowery rhetoric cannot disguise the fact that most politicians have not delivered what they promised. Hence, we should praise those leaders who look dull but have performed spectacularly.

Angela Merkel is due to step down soon as chancellor of Germany after 16 years at the helm. If she leaves office at the end of this year, she will have served in that position longer than her mentor, Helmut Kohl, who served from 1982 to 1998.

Kohl seized the historical opportunity to reunite Germany; Merkel would be remembered as the centrist, no-nonsense builder on that foundation. Lesser leaders would have fumbled or wasted the opportunity.

This is no mean feat for the only woman leader in the G7. Other than Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been de facto leader since 1999, no one has dealt with more crises. Nevertheless, under Merkel’s stewardship, Germany has consolidated its position as the fourth-largest economy in the world.

Merkel is also the most intellectually qualified of her peers, having obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry, but she is neither proud nor flashy. When asked why she often wore the same suit, she retorted, “I am a government employee and not a model.”

Angela Merkel with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Cornwall on June 12. Photo: No10 Downing Street/dpa

Born in West Germany but raised in East Germany, she was the country’s first woman chancellor, the first chancellor born after World War II and the first from East Germany.