After 16 years in power, what assessment for Angela Merkel and her African policy?
Angela Merkel during one of her meetings with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi in November 2019. AP - Michael Sohn
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
"
The development of Africa is the great challenge of our time
" recalled German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In 16 years in power, the German Chancellor, who is leaving her post after the elections on Sunday, has spared no efforts to make Africa one of the centerpieces of its foreign policy.
Advertising
Read more
Angela Merkel will have made a turning point in German policy on the continent.
It was the 2015 migration crisis with the arrival of more than 900,000 migrants in Germany that made him realize that a new African policy had to be developed to fight against the causes of emigration.
At the head of the G20 presidency, she tries to mobilize the rich countries in favor of the continent.
It is launching its Marshall Plan for Africa, which consists of making funds available to companies wishing to set up there.
And above all, it is setting up the Compact Africa initiative, a new form of cooperation which aims to facilitate business, from which the Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi hopes a lot to strengthen the commercial ties of the DRC with Germany.
German investment in Africa
In its relationship with Kinshasa, the involvement of Merkel's Germany was not significant under the presidency of Joseph Kabila. German funding was then mainly provided through the European Union, recalls our correspondent in the Congolese capital,
Patient Ligodi
. “
It was difficult to convince them to come and invest with us bilaterally. It is perhaps because of the lack of clarity of our country
”, explains a Congolese diplomat received several times in Berlin.
Under Félix Tshisekedi, the Kinshasa-Berlin axis has nevertheless warmed up.
The Congolese president was received twice by Angela Merkel, the reforms announced and initiated were welcomed and the improvement in relations with the IMF was also appreciated.
Kinshasa is now hoping for significant trade.
In 2018, German investments in Africa exceeded 10 billion euros, an increase of 10% in one year.
Immigration and terrorism are now at the heart of the Chancellor's African policy, notably with the participation of the German armed forces in Mali from 2013. But the high point of her mandate will remain the recognition at the beginning of the year of the genocide of Herero peoples in Namas in present-day Namibia by the German Empire.
►Also read: Merkel, time to take stock: in Stuttgart, the balance of colonialism?
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Africa
Germany
Angela Merkel
Diplomacy
Trade and Trade