By: Bikal Dhungel
Some call her 'real Iron Lady', some know her as the eternal
chancellor. A baby born in the year 2000, starts to remember names when she is
5 or in 2005. She asks, who is the boss of the whole country ? 'Angela Merkel'.
Today that baby is 17 years old and still Angela Merkel is the head of state.
Probably, she will still remain in the next 4 years, being the most stronghold
politician in power with such a high approval rate.
A girl born in Hamburg and raised in East Germany by her dad
who was a pastor with lots of discipline and intelligence, she was a straight A
student from school until her Phd in Physical Chemistry from Karl Marx
University in Leipzig. She has contributed a lot in the field of Chemistry, who
, without following the status quo of having children, getting old , decided
for the career in the field of Chemistry and politics. Her party, CDU is a
conservative, male dominated middle class party. As a woman, to rise up from a
conservative base is not simple as we think. It takes a lots of tactic,
courage, intelligence, trust and hard work. She was Helmut Kohl's girl, 'das Mädchen',
who kept the relationship with Helmut Kohl as a guardian.
In the year 2005, she had to run against a charismatic SPD
man Gehrhard Schroeder, who was an excellent vocal and a loved man in politics
although some critics due to his "Hartz IV' reform. She did it in 2005,
became the first female chancellor from a conservative party dominated by men
from the middle class business and family. When she took over the governance,
Germany was more or less in a mess, with almost 7 million unemployed, few
million mini-jobbers ( who basically work for nothing but thatswhy get support
from the government ). When money is not working, when government is full of
debt, all the effort goes there. Social policies, policies for science and
research will be put under the carpet due to the lack of funding etc. This in
the long term halts development. Merkel thought, the large number of unemployed
were due to the government policy, not because of the economy itself. She
started with ' I will send people back to work '. When she brought some
reforms, things started to change. within 2 years, unemployed people were
reduced almost by a million and mini jobbers had better alternatives. As things
were going to be better, she was hit by something much bigger. The economic
crisis led by mortgaze based financial crisis. Germany, as a leading exporter
suffered the most as its main market, the United States was in trouble. As the
exporting firms suffer, she held meeting with the head of private businesses to
talk how to tackle the crisis. Her ability to handle was extra-ordinary. They
agreed: if economy is doing good, people have money, if people have money, they
can afford goods, if they can afford to buy goods, companies will sell more and
gain profits, hence more tax for government, hence more money for social causes
and everybody is better off at last. Hence, keeping people in the job was
important. What the companies did was , reduced the working hours from 8 to 7
daily but did not lay off the labours. As a result, unemployment remained
constant and companies used the 1 hour time to provide trainings or to build
human capital of the workers. With time, when economy recovers, workers have
additional skills which again benefits the companies. This policy proved to be
a huge success and was praised by all over the world. Within a year, Germany
was again on track whereas other countries with poor economic policies were
still struggling with the battle of economic crisis.
Another test of Merkel came with the Greek Debt Crisis. She
had economic giants around her. Saving Euro required saving Greece. If we dont
save Greece, the domino affects will hit us, Merkel told. So, at any cost, even
disappointing the German public, she saved Greece. As a result however, as
investors feared the credibility of Euro, they looked for safe heavens to
invest. German government bond was the most attractive. So, Investors were
ready to lend it in a minus rate, meaning Germany government would borrow money
and for that it also get a certain percentage. This makes no sense economically
but in the time of crisis, yes. Germany went home with 70 billion dollars
profit. This is half the amount lent to Greece where it should start paying
interest soon. Germany had not only win-win but win-win-win.
German economy is the most robust economy today, with Euro
being very stable. Summarizing, with the three figures below, during the time
of Merkel until the crisis and beyond, the number of unemployed people were
more than halved, the GDP increased a lot, government debt reduced in real
terms, the real net wage increased. Even
taking inflation into account, all these figures are positive. Hence, economically
saying, there is no country worldwide that is more successful than Merkel's
Germany currently and the credit goes to Merkel and her policies.
However, Merkel's achievement is not limited to pure
Economics. She has been the same in Social issues.
She initiated the issue of minimum wage together with Social
Democrats during the time of coalition with Social democrats. Despite
opposition from the middle class company owners, she could convince them that
the purchasing power of the citizens is good for the businesses as people can
afford to buy more. The minimum wage of 8.5 Euro per hour was introduced with
exception in some sectors which will probably be out of business with this law.
This policy was popular among all political spectrum later and was morally
right: ' people should be able to lead a decent life from the wage they earn'.
She has also signalled in various occasions that this is going to increase in
the future.
Her conservative traditional party is reluctant to change.
As Germany has no natural resources but heavy industries, energy supply is a
very important matter. Hence, the party sticks very hard to atomic energy.
Atomic reactors throughout the country are significant. Germany even has a
separate ministry for that. However, she, a conservative with social democratic
tendency has some pain in stomach due to its risks. People of her age remembers
Chernobyl and know how the affects can look like in case if there is an
accident. Then Fukushima, and her U turn took place immediately. Merkel used
the chance to shut down half of the atomic reactors immediately and decided not
to extend the running licence of 9 others, meaning, by 2022, all atomic reactor
facilities will be closed. This was a wow moment for the environmentalists.
Critics blamed her for being too optimistic, correctly. We did not know where
the energy will come from when atomic reactors are closed, especially in the
time of quasi cold war with Russia and how the big companies with hundred
thousands of employees will power itself. However, Merkel remained silent.
Sometimes silence is the best answer as time teaches. 2 years after this policy
was enacted, a research found out that suddenly German companies are so forward
in Green technologies that people from other side of the atlantic started
telling Germany as 'The Green Super Power'. Companies like Siemens are building
mega batteries enough to power itself for a long time. Government is funding
the research, an 800 billion dollar Solar Project going on, developments in
other forms of Green Energy. She again proved, only when you are no other
alternatives, you will start to invest your effort and money in it, towards
Green energy. Today, Merkel is success. Her 'Energiewende' is an example of
'leading by doing', which is a huge contribution to the climate of our Earth.
She has been , probably, the only conservative politician in the world to
campaign for the climate. She gave a clear lecture to Donald Trump that Climate
Deals are not to be negotiated, its been finalized. She remained strong despite
all other costs. When our home is destroyed, economy makes no sense. This is
why I like her.
Merkel is a hippi head of state. People were claiming, 'your
Army is out of date, they dont have modern weapons, they are not family
friendly, army is not an attractive job', comparing to other countries, and so
on and on. Her answer, ' only if you have no power, you are interested in
peace, as long as you have weapons and power, why should you bother for peace'.
So she reduced the number of German Army from 240,000 to 170,000. Germany does
not need that much army, it never went to war against any country outside
Europe , except in World War I and II. War is impossible in Europe, so why keep
so many people in the Army. Then she made a mother of 7 children , Ursula von
der Leyen, defense minister. It was talked further. Von der Leyen , a medical
doctor , was to reform it. She took no more minutes to reform it. Bundeswehr is
very family friendly today and participate in more humanitarian mission than
the past. The most important reform, a historical one, was that Merkel and von
der Leyen abolished the compulsory military service for the men. This was a
policy that is as old as Germany. Despite some war, generally saying, the world
is very peaceful today than anytime in history. So, more time for the family
and friends and less for weapon and war.
As a woman, she was determined to help other women. One of
the major problems in Germany are single mothers. If you have children to take
care of, you can forget about career, employment and so on. Even for a married
couple, taking care of children and working is not that easy. Merkel's answer
to that was 'Elterngeld'. She would give money for up to 14 months after a
birth of a child and even more under some conditions. This was aimed to support
single mothers financially. If the mother was employed before the birth of the
child, she would get more support from the government as a part of her salary
during the time she raises her child. This increased employment of women as
well. On the other hand, if the husband decide to take care of the child, he
would get support as well. This is particularly logical when the wife earns
more than the husband. The one earning less could take care of the child. In
some state, when a child was born, a compulsory leave was granted for the
father too. This was a powerful tool against discrimination against women
because, before, employers were unwilling to hire women because they should
give them leave for a year if they are in child bearing age. Now, if fathers
get compulsory leave as well, it makes no sense at all. However, this rule is
yet to be ratified in most states. Hopefully soon.
Merkel's judgement day was during the time of Refugee Crisis
in 2015. Whole world praised her for being humanitarian, for letting in 1 million
refugees from war torn Syria but people at home were sceptic about their
integration and other dangers for example from the potential terrorists.
However, she refused to spread fear in peoples mind. Fear is a dangerous thing.
Fear fuels hate and hate fuels war. Germany already suffered the most from war
in the past, fueled with wrong kind of fears. She tried everything to convince
the public that we can do it. a strong country of 82 million people can help 1
million refugees. She also knew that Germany cant afford 1 million refugees
every year. So, she had to play more international role. She went to countries
suffering with this problem, made a deal to help there directly, helped them
economically, to make their economy robust, she made deal with Turkey, with
Mali and few other african states. As a result, in the year 2017, until July,
number of Refugees coming to Germany reduced to 70,000, lowest figure since one
and half decades. Germany was praised in the world as being a humanitarian
country, it now has lots of refugees who is thankful to it for the support they
were given and despite few bad guys among them, there will be many doctors,
engineers, economists, actors and good citizens among them in the future.
Merkel's softness prevailed. This was proved the the NRW election, as CDU got
the largest number of vote and is now building a coalition government. This is
an evidence that her policies, her leadership is a success.
Germany involves more in international politics now, it has
doubled its development aid, especially humanitarian aid, which is the most
critical, it has maintained strategic relationship. Merkel, despite being a
total opposite opinion than Donald Trump, has maintained its relationship with
no effect on the economy. When he goes too far, Merkel has not hesitated to
speak out and express of opposition. She has been a friend and enemy of
Vladimir Putin at the same time. She has done all her best, not to punish
Russia more than necessary for its deeds , for example in Crimea. She supported
her sanctions only based on this action because an invasion is not acceptable.
She has expressed her clear opinion about the treatment of homosexuals in
Russia. She has mentioned clearly that freedom of speech is a human right and
that should be respected and practiced pressure on Russia concerning Pussy
Riots. There are things that cannot be dealt for anything, rather be ignored.
Her stances are clear and her priorities are clear. Human Rights and Freedom
has better priorities than economy. Despite all this, she has also maintained a
good relationship with Putin. Putin loves the company of Merkel. Putin, a
fluent speaker of German , for having lived in Dresden for a long time and
Merkel, a fluent speaker of Russian , learnt during her school time , are good
friends and strategic partner. High ranking political scientists have expressed
several times that the only country Putin fears is Germany, which was due to
the tactical policies of Merkel and obviously other German politicians.
I admire her for her service for the country, for Europe and
the world. Being asked by an interviewer, 'how many hours do you sleep, or can
you sleep' Merkel answered, ' not more
than 6 hours a day. and this since 12 years. She has remain reachable via
mobile 24/7. Even during her weekend, vacation , she should remain stand-by to
return to work. Anyone who doubts her efforts,
please try to sleep just 6 hours for a day for a week, anyone over 30
will fall sick after that. Now imagine a woman of 62 years of age is doing that
since 12 years. This is a service for humanity.
Along with all her policies, Angela Kasner, who became
Angela Merkel, awarded highest honour of 9 countries, honorary degrees of 10
elite universities along with dozen other honours and Forbes 'Most powerful
woman of the world" for 8 times is certainly the most important female
leader of the world. Raising up from a conservative party of men to the most
powerful woman of the world for 8 times needs courage, hard work, intelligence
and many other skills that rarely anyone has achieved. Angela Merkel is an
example of epitome of success. Obviously, not all people like her or at least
some or many of her policies but , as a whole, given her situation and the
responsibility she bears, she has done a lot in the last 12 years. Her all
policies, including the recent 'Green Signal" to same sex marriage, which
was passed by the parliament to her energy policies, humanitarian policies,
social and economic policies are real success, envied by many countries. Hence,
I will consider Angela Merkel as a successful politician who will be remembered
for a long long time by the Germans and the world.
" There is one red line that we should not cross. It is a commitment to human rights, the respect of the dignity of the human being. There should be no compromises." - Angela Merkel
“Fear has never been a good adviser, neither in our personal lives nor in our society. Cultures and societies that are shaped by fear, will without doubt not get a grip on the future.” - Angela Merkel
"As the G20, we cannot ignore the challenge that climate change poses to all of us in the world.” - Angela Merkel
" There is one red line that we should not cross. It is a commitment to human rights, the respect of the dignity of the human being. There should be no compromises." - Angela Merkel
“Fear has never been a good adviser, neither in our personal lives nor in our society. Cultures and societies that are shaped by fear, will without doubt not get a grip on the future.” - Angela Merkel
"As the G20, we cannot ignore the challenge that climate change poses to all of us in the world.” - Angela Merkel
