Has Angela Merkel's time gone?

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In September 2013, the CDU unveiled one of its biggest posters for the general election, facing the train station in the heart of Berlin. The poster was odd to those unfamiliar with Germany's politics and politicians, and contrary to what mankind has been used to since the beginning of the idea of ​​modern democratic elections as we know it. The party has decided to promote its candidate, Angela Merkel, with posters that do not show her face at all, but merely the movement of her usual hands, famous for her "Merkel Raute," which has become a symbol of her tireless and empty charisma and enthusiasm.

"Put Germany's future in good hands," read the poster, a clear indication of the stability Germany has enjoyed under Merkel's leadership since she entered office in 2005, which has become known as the "dead", or "mother" in German, to turn its image in the minds of the Germans slowly Just a politician in the corridors of the Christian Democratic Union, to a figure flying above the political arena with its own popularity, separate from its membership in the party, as if it were indeed "mother" of the Germans and the political process as a whole.

But the image of the "mother" and the advantages it brings to the sense of security and stability, at the same time, gives a degree of boredom in political life and lose the usual enthusiasm, one of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party, now allied with the Christian Union, that there is no sense for his party Candidate for the position of Chancellor While "Merkel" is doing well, while the German magazine Cicero recently published on the cover of the image of an electoral box from which the image of the Chancellor and entitled "Who we elect others?".

It was a cynical and revealing paradox revealed in a 2017 survey in Germany about the relationship between Germans and Motti. Germans are more willing to pay money out of their pockets for a beer with well-known and popular German football coach Jürgen Klopp. What they might pay for dinner with Angela Merkel. Merkel does not care much that she does not have as close and enthusiastic relations with people as she chooses every four years because she fosters politics and the economy as if she were a mother. But my death, unfortunately, not only rules Germany, and her "sons" are more mature and enthusiastic than just looking for "Good hands."

Trudeau hypothesis: Little enthusiasm is enough

"Like the car driver in the fog, Merkel sees only five meters in front of her, not a hundred meters, so she prefers to be careful not to talk too much and go step by step. Rather, there is no vision at all."
(German novelist and journalist Peter Schneider)

Merkel's image and long reign does not seem to be a coincidence in German political history. The chancellor played a very favorable role for what Germany needed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and German reunification: grabbing things without fomenting any national or ideological feelings from near or far. The German politicians who witnessed the fall of the Wall were struck by the fire of ideologies and grand visions twice, once when the Communist regime fell on top of the Germans in the East, after being denied them for decades of normal contact with the world, and once when the fascist system before it fell on all Germans, To understand the political unity for almost half a century.

Merkel was indeed a reflection of the spirit that influenced coldness on the ideology enthusiasm and tireless technocratic work on the resonant nationalist slogans. In fact, it proved to be efficient in building the largest economy on the continent and the largest economic union in the world, but Germany's EU partners never shared it. Thus, for them, Merkel was only a woman who robbed Europe of its multiple cultural and political meanings in exchange for the launch of the EU's bureaucratic machine according to strict German standards.

It is not just the Europeans who want to get out of Motti's orders today, but a new generation of Germans themselves more reconciled with their national identity, more willing to lend some heat to the German political scene, and perhaps see their country in a more prominent regional and global position than the silent economic power. The fall of the United States as a model of democracy and leadership after Trump's election, on the other hand, in exchange for a dramatic rise in popularity of Germany, Germans and German culture worldwide, nevertheless puts Germany under the spotlight.

Of course, this does not mean accepting fascist and nationalist visions. Merkel, more openly in talking about the future of the European Union and its reform than her usual diplomatic words about the importance of unity, and the lack of an alternative to the euro as I stated earlier.

Sooner or later, the Germans will discover that eating is not limited to the chancellor's kitchen, and that the effective solution to the alternatives offered by the populist right is a preemptive strike, with a radical renewal campaign in the speeches and leadership of traditional parties, which can itself provide the alternative, to eat herself before eating it. The right, a hypothesis that was partially demonstrated by the victory of Justin Trudeau in Canada, a liberal politician who completely broke the traditional politicians' image, unleashed a political discourse that was closer to the people and more intimate and frank, to snatch Canada's prime minister from the conservative right.

This hypothesis also proves what happened in the United States in the 2016 elections, when Democrats decided to push Hillary Clinton as a traditional figure to confront Trump's "anarchism", rather than risking the nomination of Bernie Sanders as a new face, for the old-fashioned politician to lose her White House race against the larger bias of Trump as a new outsider. The system, a lesson absorbed by all the centrist and center-left parties in Europe, including the German Social Democratic Party, the main rival of the Christian Union despite being in the current government coalition led by Merkel, which apparently decided that Merkel is no longer doing well as assumed s Party Dah previously, and that few Hamas Trudeau has become necessary to keep the Germans from the right.

Steinmeier and Schultz: Merkel's star falls

"What Steinmeier does is fill a void that has recently emerged clearly; communicate with people through emotions."
(Franz Montefering, leader of the Social Democratic Party)

In January 2016, the SPD decided to nominate Martin Schultz as chancellor in Merkel's September 2017 election, but the SPD decided to inject fresh blood into the college not only within the party but in the whole of German politics. He had a prominent political role in Germany, except for his perpendicularity to a town in western Germany during the 1980s, and his main role was in the corridors of the European Parliament, where he remained a member of the party bloc since 1994 and presided over the parliament from 2012-2017.

Schultz stands in stark contrast to Angela Merkel. The man did not grow up in East Germany like the chancellor, but in a far west town near the Dutch border. He was not born into a strict Protestant family like her, but in a family of simple workers, to retreat from completing secondary education for his dreams. In football, he began training as a book seller, a time he had long suffered from alcoholism, while Merkel ended her PhD in quantum chemistry in 1986.

Two years before Merkel entered politics during the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schultz had already reached the post of mayor of Würselen after more than a decade of work within the SPD, and when Merkel arrived at the CDU General Secretariat, it coincided with Schultz's formal exit from politics. German and devoted to his duties in the European Parliament, as if predestination has distanced him from the cold political life has never suit him as a person who constantly sees himself "bulk of the street", and proud of his loud voice and his active record devoid of the rigor of the world of academic institutions.

Since the announcement of his candidacy, opinion polls have proved one by one the "Trudeau hypothesis". Schultz has succeeded in attracting many supporters of the right-wing alternative party, the left-wing Linke Party and the Green Party, raising his score enough to become a fierce competitor to the chancellor. He has lost about a third of his public credentials since Schultz's nomination was announced in January 2017, dropping his expected percentage of the vote from 15% to between 8 and 11%.

Schultz's position was reinforced by the choice of Merkel's former foreign minister, and also a member of the Social Democrats, Frank Steinmeier, for the symbolic post of president in September 2017.The former minister is also known for his stronger foreign policy rhetoric compared to Merkel's calm, which is not surprising. Given his original career as a lawyer, the man unleashed his talk about Germany's growing importance in the world, saying: "Isn't it wonderful that our difficult country becomes a haven for the hopes of many around the world?"

In the same vein, German parliament speaker Norbert Lammert, a member of the Christian Democrats, spoke just before Steinmeier's presidency, in an unusually aggressive tone in German politics, criticizing US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin implicitly, without naming them, in an attempt perhaps. From the Christian Union to keep up with the increasingly popular rhetoric of his leftist rival, prompting some within the Christian Union to blame Merkel for choosing Steinmeier as president as a source of trouble for the party's future.

After my death

" Merkel has robbed politics of her political nature"
(George Diez, German writer and journalist)

It is always remarkable how Angela Merkel, the daughter of the Protestant family, managed to lead the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his most prominent partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, although they were mainly centered on Catholic voters in southern Germany. He also draws attention to how she succeeded in obtaining several advantages during her upbringing in East Germany that only those who were able to adapt to the then Soviet-backed communist regime, such as a grant to travel to the Soviet Union and study Russian.

All of this has been part of its pure pragmatism in reaching the final results, without regard to any political, cultural or ideological aspects of what it does. The Christian Union is its means of managing Germany and not necessarily reflecting its religious or political affiliation, just as the EU remains the guarantee of German stability. More and less, contrary to Schultz's view, which believes in the principles of European democracy as a value in itself must be defended loudly against Putin, Trump and others. Few visions have become useful for politics in Europe, especially in elections, unlike Merkel in her long years in power.

"Nothing will change in this election, and we will get a grand coalition again led by Chancellor Angela Merkel "
(Thus a German spoke of his expectations for the outcome of the September 2017 elections)

It is, of course, not good for Merkel to become a counterpart to the lack of change on a continent full of change. Merkel may not leave until 2021, but she will start to pack some of her luggage and ideas as the two most important voices of German and European politics now rise, and German politics is finally regaining part. Even if it is simple in its political nature, its deeper communication with people, and its greater intensity in dealing with global issues. Perhaps it is time for Motti to come out of the picture, and with it the specter of Nazism and the wall in Berlin, to give way to a German leadership that is inevitable and necessary, and give way to the young German policy now.