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In the future, perhaps during one of her walks in the Baltic, Angela Merkel might reflect on the title of her memoirs Freedomwhile Ukraine fights for this against a Russia for which it has done so much, does not exude good taste. But let's be fair. The 700 pages after the title are worse. In a book of relentless self-pity, people always underestimate the author. You're supposed to conclude that she proved them wrong. You walk away asking if they had half a point.
Merkel, who alone defends constitutional term limits, has the right to fend for herself. “I have been the most destructive European leader since 1945” would never have been the gist of his book. To her credit, she doesn't even use her best excuse: that a generic German chancellor of the time would have done the same things – on energy, on defense, if not on asylum – such was the consensus national of the time.
The people I most want to hear from are his fans. Why did Western liberals fall in love with Merkel? Because she was a woman? No, they didn't like Margaret Thatcher and were suspicious of Giorgia Meloni. Because she was left-wing? No, his party is center right, even if the exchange rate between German politics and that of the Anglosphere is not so clear. Because she let in a million refugees, then? She was hailed as the “Queen of Europe” long before that.
In the end, there was very little worship of Merkel. Just the vague feeling that she was a nice person and – above all – that conservatives didn't like her. Deep and tribal: the cult of Merkel was the worst of modern liberalism.
She herself learned no lessons from that time. But his former admirers could still do it, with some guidance. So there you go.
First lesson. Scientists are not “better”. The view expressed about Angela Merkel was that while Britain was run by glib humanities graduates, here was a physical chemist who brought empirical rigor to government. Well, it wasn't the silver-tongued Oxonians who showed an almost theological aversion to nuclear power. Although Merkel did indeed crave details, she also had the corollary: no big picture, no sense of the interconnectedness of things. Whether a nation is poorly managed (Britain in recent years) or well managed (Britain in the past), generalists will tend to be in charge. The academic bent of the elite at the age of 18 cannot be a variable explaining much. Stop worrying about the PPE diploma.
Second lesson. It is not because a person lacks external charisma that they have inner depths. (Call it the Gordon Brown fallacy.) In all likelihood, there is even less to them than meets the eye. Merkel would embody a “post-heroic” style of leadership. It was said that a great strategic mind brewed behind that calm exterior and shy diamond of a hand gesture. Yeah, no. It was a sphinx without secrets. This is a type of person who comes up not only in history but in every workplace around the world, always with wisdom and top-notch talent within them.
The last lesson? It's the one least likely to be heard, I'm afraid. Bad people can have good judgment, and vice versa. An issue must be approached on its own terms, not based on who is where. Donald Trump was right: European defense spending was, with a few honorable exceptions, scandalous. He was right that Germany's energy dependence would help “expansionist foreign powers.” And despite the constant suggestions in Merkel's book, none of this is hindsight. It's just the view.
To get an idea of the tribal superficiality that can defeat intelligent people, remember that the British who hated “austerity” swore by this fiscal hawk. Not only did the tension not bother them, but I'm not sure they thought about it in the first place. What mattered was that Merkel, in some ineffable way, seemed to be on the right team. From there, the rest could be filled in. His policy? His judgment history? Such a bore.
Nothing captured Merkel Mania quite like the meme of her at a G7 summit, literally lunging at Trump, sitting with his arms crossed. As soon as the photo was released, its message was unequivocal: the exasperated adult and the irritable child. No image since The Picture of Dorian Gray has aged worse.
Email Janan at janan.ganesh@ft.com
Read the FT's review of Angela Merkel's “Freedom” here
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