Foreign Policy: Corona's epidemic reveals the personalities of the three most important leaders in the West

A US academic said that addressing US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to their people about the Corona epidemic reveals not only their country’s readiness, but their personalities and the deepest political beliefs that each holds.

In an article in Foreign Policy magazine, Tyson Parker, a specialist in foreign and economic policy, explained that in short this crisis has highlighted both the three leaders as is without any cover.

He also said that within 24 hours, the Corona virus forced three of the most important Western leaders to reveal themselves and their leadership styles, Trump presented as an amateur who was not interested in the main topic and driven by anger, ambiguous, and a desire for revenge, and Macron as a leader with an ambitious vision constrained by ability, and Merkel a diminished personality that fades away Slowly and backward without leaving her position.

Administrative atrophy
He reported that Trump's national speech on Wednesday was mostly characterized by his attacks on freedom of travel and the characters he imagined in the European Union, and in many ways the letter was an intense snapshot of his presidential career that was marked by the administrative atrophy of the American state for three years, including the office for the closed epidemic at home White and financial cuts from the budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He added that Trump relied primarily on his vengeful instinct against the European Union, noting that from a public health perspective the European travel ban imposed by the Trump administration for 30 days was mostly punitive distraction, yet Trump erred in reading his own text, and indicated that The ban would include European "trade and shipping", before his team corrected it and made it clear it would not.

Out of context
The writer also said that while the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention justified the European travel ban by making Europe a "new China", Trump justified it on his part by saying that the European Union had imposed "unjust" tax increases on the United States during the reign of former US President Barack Obama .

Meanwhile, Europe was furious at the lack of a warning about the shift in US policy, and the media mocked Trump, citing his statements last week that Corona could disappear on its own.

Observers of America in Europe expressed concern about the dangerous flexibility of the United States, the fragility of the social safety net and public health, and the disruption of early screening methods.

The captain of the global leader
As for Macron, he spoke in broad terms about "the biggest health crisis in France in a century", and laid the foundations for a far-sighted agenda, including an economic review of the European Union, active global public health efforts, a top-down agenda in France to close schools and funded incentives From the state, and all this is supported by a new spirit of solidarity against the epidemic.

Macron's speech saw 22 million people, and was praised by many French people. Macron's broad agenda met his citizens' high-ceiling expectations of their government and used the tools available to a central country leader like France.

Finally, the author says of Macron that in his speech he wore the mantle of the global leader during the current crisis.

Delegating subordinates
On Chancellor Merkel, Parker said that she stuck to low-level generalizations, praised the German willingness in return for his weakness in other European countries, and ended with a vague assessment on European coordination, then turned the conference to the President of the Bavarian region Marcus Soder, who seemed to be the actual adviser, as he held the rest From the evening with decisions on detailed practical policies, such as school closures, hospital tests and preparations.

The author commented on Merkel's leaving the platform for Soder saying that it reflects the German constitutional system, the efficient performance of services such as school closures, public transportation, and event-appropriate restrictions on the country's 16 federal states, not the federal government.

Notable absence
But the thread that connects Merkel’s career in leadership - according to the author - is not to use all the force at her disposal, as she repeatedly delegated broad membership to her cabinet, and continued this approach during the current crisis, and the active Health Minister, Jens Span, 39, was a symbol of reassurance Political, while Finance Minister Olaf Schultz and Economy Minister Peter Altmair independently announced unlimited financial aid to German companies and a possible nationalization of industries.

The Corona epidemic period thus far lacks the moment when Merkel takes over and dramatically changes the course of German politics as is the case with her decision during the refugee crisis in 2015, and the crisis management in Germany during its formation has become categorically decentralized, with Merkel's prominent absence.