Let take a view of meetings of World leaders the past ten years and you will likely notice one figure. Angela Merkel's one of the most influential leaders of Europe. her leadership spans 13years and four terms. 2005,2009,2013 and 2017 "I swear that I will devote my strength to the well-being of the German people so help me GOD". In that span, she became one of the most powerful women in the world. but recently stepped down as the leader of her party and she won't be running for re-elections. "This fourth term is my last as the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany".
By 2021, not only will Germany lose one of its longest-serving leaders-so will Europe. Markel has dominated European politics and decades. so how did Angela Merkel become so powerful and what does her exit mean for Europe? Berlin,1988. The Berlin wall divided German's capital in half for almost 3 decades. West Berlin was the part of the prosperous and democratic West Germany. East Berlin. And the other side was the improvised communist East Germany-a satellite sate of the Soviet Union.
But when the Wall fell in 1989, the East unified with the West. And Germany quickly became one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe. That was the time when Angela Merkel entered politics. She elected to be a member of the new parliament in 1990 but rapidly rose through the ranks.
By 1994, she was the Minister of the Environment. and by 2000, she was the head of her political party the CDU. while Merkel became more important in Germany, reunited Germany became more important in Europe. It became a leader in the European Union. There were open borders between EU member countries, to let people and trade pass freely. And Germany led the efforts to create "Eurozone" where 11 EU countries adopted the Euro as a common currency in 1999.
These policies made EU countries more dependent on each other. And the early 2000s, the EU countries increasingly looked to Germany, one of its most powerful enemies, to be its leader.
Starting in 2005, that leadership came from Angela Merkel. Merkel was elected in 2005 as Germany's chancellor and demonstrated a talent for building consensus. She engineered a "grand coalition" between Germany's biggest political parties from the right and the left. With this alliance behind her, Merked solved two of the biggest Germany's economic problems. She cut huge Government spending and reduced unemployment. Her ability to stabilize Germany's economy became particularly important when the EU faced a crisis."This Eurozone crisis has gone from bad to worse", said Nina DOS SANTOS.
Betty Nguyen said;" it is high stakes game where the players are world leaders and the wager is world economy". The global economic recession in 2008 hit Greece especially hard. The country inched towards bankruptcy and its economic decline brought down the value of the Euro, which hurt everyone in the Eurozone. But Merkel's Germany was weathering the recession better than anyone in Europe.
So it fell on Merkel to reduce Greece with her economic strategy: She demanded Greece pass huge spending cuts in exchange for a loan from the EU and IMF. These deeply unpopular across Europe. Cutting Greece's pensions and services were harish tactics. But Merkel's priority was to retain the integrity of the Eurozone and Greece's debt threatened that Union:" If the Euro fails Europe fails That must not happen".
Merkel's got eventually 16 countries to support her plan and the Eurozone together, cementing her role as the unparalleled but the controversial leader of Europe. Within Germany Mekel's popularity continued to grow. Germans called her "Mutti" meaning 'mother' for taking care of their economy. She even earned her own emoji -<>- representing her trademark hand-gesture.
And in 2013, she won her term as chancellor, but this term would turn out to be very different than others. The number of migrants coming into Europe this year alone is now at more than 500000. " Almost 900 people drowned as they attempted across the Libia to EU. "Some countries are greeting them with open arms. Others are setting up fences with barbed wire on the top". In 2015 more than 1 million refugees migrated from Africa towards Europe.
Merkel said at that time "we are learning in this refugee situation that we are connected to each other and our lives are affected if terrible things happen elsewhere. And I'm convinced that we are not able to change that by buildings fences". In 2015. Germany granted asylum to over 140 thousand migrants-more than any other European country.
Having lost support for her coalition government in 2018, Merkel decided to stepdown as leader of her party though shell remains as Germany chancellor until her term ends in 2021. Merkel's party recently elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, as the next leader. She's a moderate ally who could very well Germany's next chancellor.
But for the rest of Europe, Merkel's absence could be more unsettling. Since the Eurozone and migrant crisis, Europe has seen nationalist political parties gain popularity in recent elections, threatening the unity of the EU. And Merkel has gone from being a champion of a united Europe to its last remaining strong defender. With Merkel stepping away, these nationalist leaders could gain influence over the future of the European Union.
And that's something Merkel is very aware of. She said; My conviction guides me in this. We will only master the challenges of our time if we stand united and work together with others across borders.
So in this article, we touched briefly on the idea of a European identity. And that something you are learning more about, you should like my articles and also my site. Thank you
No comments:
Post a Comment