Monday 29 October 2018

merkeldämmerung

A lot of the reasoned decisions that Angela Merkel has made during her leadership, spanning thirteen years thus far, have been characterised as reactionary when in fact they were very much premeditated, like the Engeriewende, mothballing nuclear power plants, that seemed to happen in the wake of the Fukushima disaster whose phasing-out was planned for a long time, or the choice to open the borders to asylum-seekers after not publically promising a young refugee that there was definitely a place for her and her family when the deliberation was measured and many were consulted.
Merkel’s announcement not to seek re-election was strongly hinted at in the summer, though the nature of her future plans were not fully limned out—that she would be retiring from politics altogether (those there’s always the chance for a much-deserved encore) and relinquish party-leadership while staying on through her term.  What do you think?  Endorsing no particular successor and vowing to bow out earlier should snap-, off-cycle-elections be called, Merkel hopes her departure and concession of an inflection point will help restore civility to a polarised and fractious constituency, which was marked by years of partnership and outreach with other factions.