Merkel’s record is that she was able like no one else to bring European heads of state and government to the table and negotiate with them until a viable solution was found for all.
Media mentions – German election 2021
No one can replace Angela Merkel, at least for the foreseeable future, because Angela Merkel had built her reputation and her political weight over 16 years
The constant focus on the cost of potential measures discount[s] the unimaginable future costs of inaction
It is inexplicable to me how one can talk for so long about climate action and how to make Germany fit for the future without mentioning the EU, which plays a massive role in this
In a recent paper, Jana Puglierin and Mark Leonard draw on opinion polling to conclude that Germany “may be on the cusp of a nationalist turn”
Now Merkel’s leaving office after 16 years, many Europeans believe the country’s “golden age” is over — including a majority of Germans, according to a recent poll by ECFR
The comfortable world that Germany that relied on for the past decades – which enabled it to not be so present in the leadership – is disappearing
They had a complicated relationship, and sometimes that was also due to a lack of communication and the differences in the political culture of the two countries
There will be common positions, for example, on issues of a more common European fiscal policy, which Macron has long wanted
In practice, it will be the SPD and Greens who will set the policy in the long run, but the third government partner will be important for the overall narrative of the political project