Daily Times

Finally the “Iron lady” the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to quit from politics. She announced earlier that she will not be the presidential candidate in the upcoming December party elections of Christian democratic union and even will not be the candidate for the next chancellor. Merkel fulfilled her promise and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as the new president of the Christian Democratic Party in the recent December party elections.

In the crushing October defeat in the state of Bavaria, now it’s difficult for the Christian democratic union and its allies to be in power. Since 2017, Federal elections, Christian democratic union and its allies were facing defeat and continuously losing their vote bank because of their soft immigration policies.

Due to these soft immigration policies of Christian democratic union refugees are coming from the war zones of Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Bavaria is among those states where huge numbers of Syrian, Iraqi and Libyan refugees are settled.

After the recent past federal elections the Christian Democratic Party negotiated with the opposition party to form its government by a simple majority. Finally after the long debate, the final agreement with the opposition social democratic party was finalized and Merkel came back to power.

Angela Merkel was severely criticized even by her interior minister for her very soft policies towards refugees coming across the Middle East. Infact this card was very successfully played even by her own coalition partners which later became one of the major causes of Merkel’s unpopularity among her own people.

She was also in fact criticized by her Middle East policies. At first she strongly opposed Assad’s regime along with United States and other European states but in 2015, she started drifting towards the Russian federation.

In fact, she also convinced the Obama administration to adopt a soft policy towards Russia. Later due to Russian air strikes on Syrian opposition forces, the Assad regime once again stands on its feet.

Now due to Russian interference in Syrian war, thousands of Syrian refugees are entering in European states. Several European states were not ready to open their borders for the refugees, due to their own poor economies. However, Merkel opened the borders of Germany for the refugees coming across the war zones of Middle East. Although at that stage Germany’s economy was booming but due to ten million refugees coming from the Middle East, several social, economic and psychological issues increased in the German society.

Meanwhile, the European nationalist parties’ opposed the settlement of refugees in European states. Due to such policies the nationalist parties got support from the mass public and are now becoming popular among the European states.

In the last eighteen years Merkel played a vital role in the politics of Germany and Europe. Since 2005, Christian Democratic Party won every election in Germany. Last year, Merkel took an oath as a chancellor for the fourth time, and she will lead Germany till 2021. In Germany, due to her great contributions almost in every field, she is called the Mother Merkel. No doubt, she played a vital and effective role in making Germany one and the only economic giant in Europe.

The severe European economic crisis of 2007, hit the economies of England, France, Greece and Italy but Germany alone stands firm because of the strict and well disciplined economic policies of the iron lady, Angela Merkel.

She was also in fact criticised by her Middle East policies. At first she strongly opposed Assad’s regime along with United States and other European states but in 2015, she started drifting towards the Russian federation

The driving force of European economy is Germany headed by the iron lady, Angela Merkel. Analysts think that the sudden unpopularity of Merkel is also due to the rise of nationalist parties in Europe, and secondly Merkel was unable to judge the hidden agenda of Russia under Putin, who also being a nationalist wanted to revive Russian influence which was shattered during the Afghan war.

The recent victory of Assad’s forces in Middle East, in fact increased the Russian influence from Syria to Yemen and in the whole of the Middle Eastern region.

Now due to increasing Russian regional influence Turkey also started negotiating with its old rival as well. After the historic, Russian defeat in Afghanistan now Russia emerged as a new power in the Middle East under Putin’s nationalist leadership.

Although Merkel’s pro-Russian policies and soft policies towards refugees cost her, her political career but at the same time due to her domestic economic discipline and exceptional fiscal and monetary management, Germany became an economic giant in the whole region and the per-capita income also increased and the people of Germany rightly called her “Mother Merkel”.

The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, FC College University

Published in Daily Times, December 12^th 2018.