The steely headmistress with Europe in her thrall - FT.

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November 18, 2011 11:28 pm

The steely headmistress with Europe in her

thrall
By Quentin Peel

More than 30 years ago Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary of State, allegedly
complained that he could not believe in Europe until it had a single telephone number
to call. He should be happy today, says Germanys popular Stern magazine. He just has
to call Madame Europa, alias Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in Berlin. It
even printed her office telephone number.
Germany has belatedly discovered that its sober, solid and deliberately unglamorous
leader is really the person calling the shots across the continent. Whether we like it or
not, Ms Merkel is the most important person in Europe today, says Gerd Langguth,
politics professor at Bonn university, and a biographer of the chancellor. She may not
like it herself, although the more she is in the centre of things, the more she seems to
enjoy it.
As Europes sovereign debt crisis further rattled the markets this week the 57-year-old
former physicist threw down the gauntlet to her European partners by calling for
more Europe, not less Europe as the answer. Addressing the annual congress of her
centre-right Christian Democratic Union, she steered the party back to its proEuropean roots, in favour of step-by-step progress towards political union in the
European Union. It was not what the markets wanted to hear. They wanted an instant
solution to stem the eurozone crisis. But it delighted the party faithful.
Ms Merkels vision of the future was also more than enough to alarm the least
federalist parts of the EU, not least the UK, where the very words political union are
like waving a red rag to a bull. But by persuading her party that they can hope for
more Europe, she has won room for manoeuvre to be more flexible in the current
crisis.
In truth, the chancellor has dominated decision-making in the EU ever since the
eurozone debt crisis began in Greece two years ago, if not before. She may be softspoken, a consensus builder, but it is her thinking that has set the agenda in Brussels,
and dictated the guidelines of crisis management. She insists there can be no bail-out
without drastic austerity conditions. She is adamant private creditors must share the

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burden of a debt write-down. She refuses to call on the European Central Bank to be
the lender of last resort to stop contagion in the bond markets.
Yet popular German headlines that welcome the return of an Iron Chancellor like
Bismarck fail to capture her flexible personality. Born in Hamburg, but brought up in
communist East Germany, she came from outside to seize control of the maledominated CDU in 2000, and is now its unchallenged leader.
She was brought into government by Helmut Kohl after unification in 1990, as a token
woman from the east after unification. He called her the girl, and made her minister
for women and youth. At that stage, there was little sign of ambition. She may have
been the daughter of a Protestant pastor but she was blessed with acute political
antennae. While charming and funny, she can also be ruthless. Since she got to the top,
she has carefully removed every potential challenger from office.
Like Mr Kohl, she is known for her remarkable memory. Indeed she is famous for her
determination to master a subject better than any of the men she has to work with. As
a scientist, she really wants to understand what makes things tick, according to a
former close adviser, and once she has reached a decision, she sticks with it unless
circumstances change.
Twice in the past year she has performed remarkable U-turns, and managed to
persuade her party to follow her. The first was in reversing her governments decision
to extend the life of Germanys nuclear power stations, following the nuclear disaster at
Japans Fukushima plant. Being a physicist made her feel comfortable with atomic
energy for a long time, says Margaret Heckel, author of How the Chancellor Rules.
When Fukushima happened in a high technology country like Japan, it simply was not
in her projections. She understood that even in Germany, something unimaginable
may happen.
Not only that, she knew nuclear power would be very unpopular and boost the votes of
the Greens. She dumped the policy overnight. Her second U-turn came this week: she
persuaded her CDU to overcome strong conservative objections, and support
minimum wages.
If she wins a third term in 2013 she is still the most popular German politician, and
her party is the largest she can choose to form a coalition to the left as well as to the
right. She first won office in 2005, bringing down the curtain on Gerhard Schroders
chancellorship but since then has shown no sign of losing her zest for high office.

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She never ceases to learn, says Ms Heckel. That is why people continue to
underestimate her. Once you have formulated an opinion on her, she has already
changed.
She is a pragmatic problem-solver, not ideological, says Prof Langguth. She can
change her position from one day to another. Her party does not like that. They want a
consistent conviction. But the Christian Democrats ... know that only with her can they
win the next election.
Critics say her approach to the crisis has been too little, too late to stabilise the
markets. She is obsessed by the contradiction between a slow-moving democratic
process, and the instant reaction of financial investors. She mistrusts the markets, and
refuses to be rushed to respond. She is also deeply risk-averse, which endears her to
anxious voters. Yet the pragmatist in her means she can change her mind, just as she
did over nuclear power.
Margaret Thatcher, that other legendary female scientist turned head of government,
famously once declared the ladys not for turning. To many looking on at Germany in
now Ms Merkel may seem to wield the same adamantine handbag. But do not be
fooled: Mutti as she is known in the German media is an altogether more emollient
figure.
The writer is the FTs Berlin bureau chief

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