When Chancellor Merkel steps down after 16 years in power, how will history remember her?

[Demovictory9]

Germans vote on Sunday in elections that will ultimately bring down the curtain on Angela Merkel's final term as chancellor of Germany.


Angela Merkel is standing down after 16 years in office
When Mrs Merkel steps down after 16 years in power, how will history remember her?

We asked four experts to assess her style of leadership and track record.

© BBC
What is Merkel's main legacy as chancellor?
She has turned German politics into a discussion about policy rather than politics, says Matt Qvortrup, professor of political science at Coventry University, and author of Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader.

German politics used to be a testosterone-fuelled männerclub - a club of men. Under Mrs Merkel, things have become much more policy-oriented.

The problem with that, I suppose, is that it ends up being quite mechanical and scientific. Mrs Merkel trained as a physicist, and has a PhD in quantum chemistry. So, for someone like her, she has an approach that is very factually based.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-germans-will-look-back-on-angela-merkel/ar-AAOIyQ8?ocid=msedgntp

[abqtommy]

1. I've long thought, and still do, that Chancellor Merkel has done a good job. nt

[Skittles]

2. not as "Mrs. Merkel"

Last edited Thu Sep 23, 2021, 12:56 AM - Edit history (1)

*edited to say THANK YOU

[lame54]

3. We'll know in a hundred years

[bullwinkle428]

4. How about "She dealt with more than her share of dick-heads"??

Chump, Shrub, Putin, Boris Johnson, Berlusconi...I could go on.

[DFW]

5. Unfortunately for Germany

It will now go back to being a "Männerclub." Her own party had a super-smart, and hugely competent potential successor, Ursula von der Leyen (pictured next to Merkel in the article). Her party saw this years ago, and shunted von der Leyen off to dead-end posts such as Defense Minister, and then head of the European Commission in Brussels.

Of the two men of whom one will be the next Chancellor, both are bureaucrats, professional politicians who have little to no idea what it means to be out there in the real world, trying to earn a living there. They are fed with slogans and theories, and have lived off of taxpayer money and perks all their professional lives, never actually having the slightest clue what it really means to earn them.

We will miss Merkel greatly. Even my wife, a life-long solid SPD-or-Greens voter, is sad to see her go. Her successor, no matter who it is, won't be as good.

[niyad]

6. It is Chancellor Merkel.

[Demovictory9]

8. yes. Used title from article. Will changr

Yes

[niyad]

9. Yes, I saw that. BBC should know better.

[Mr.Bill]

7. Hopefully as someone who

didn't take any shit from Donald Trump.