Take a look at these meetings of world leaders from the past ten years and you’ll likely
notice one figure.
This is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the most influential leaders of Europe.
Her leadership spans 13 years and four terms.
In that span, she became one of the most powerful women in the world.
But she recently stepped down as leader of her party and she won’t be running for re-election.
By 2021, not only will Germany lose one of its longest-serving leaders — so will Europe.
Merkel has dominated European politics for decades.
So how did Angela Merkel become so powerful and what does her exit mean for Europe?
The Berlin Wall divided Germany’s capital in half for almost 3 decades.
This side was part of the prosperous and democratic West Germany.
And the other side was the impoverished communist East Germany - a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
But when the Wall fell in 1989, the East unified with the West.
And Germany quickly became one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe.
This is when Angela Merkel entered politics.
She was elected to be a member of the new parliament in 1990, but rapidly rose through
the ranks.
By ‘94 she was Minister of the Environment.
And by 2000 she was head of her political party, the CDU.
While Merkel became more important in Germany, reunited Germany became more important in Europe.
It became a leader in the European Union.
There were open borders between EU member countries, to let people and trade pass through freely.
And Germany led the effort to create the “Eurozone” where 11 EU countries adopted the Euro as a
common currency in 1999.
These policies made EU countries more dependent on each other.
And in the early 2000s, the EU increasingly looked to Germany,
one of its most powerful economies,
to be its leader.
Starting in 2005, that leadership came from Angela Merkel.
Merkel was elected Germany’s Chancellor and demonstrated a talent for building consensus.
She engineered a “grand coalition” between Germany’s biggest political parties
from the right and the left.
With this alliance behind her, Merkel solved two of Germany’s biggest economic problems.
She cut huge government spending and reduced unemployment.
Her ability to stabilize Germany's economy became particularly important when the EU
faced a crisis.:
"This Eurozone crisis has gone from bad to worse."
“It is a high stakes game where the players are world leaders
and the wager is the world’s economy."
The global economic recession in 2008 hit Greece especially hard.
The country inched towards bankruptcy and its economic decline brought down the value
of the Euro, which hurt everyone in the Eurozone.
But Merkel’s Germany was weathering the recession better than anyone in Europe.
So it fell on Merkel to rescue Greece with her economic strategy:
She demanded Greece pass huge spending cuts
in exchange for loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
These were deeply unpopular across Europe.
Cutting Greece’s pensions and services were harsh tactics.
But Merkel’s priority was to retain the integrity of the Eurozone and Greece’s debt
threatened that union:
Merkel eventually got the 16 Eurozone countries to support her plan and kept the Eurozone
together, cementing her role as the unparalleled but controversial leader of Europe.
Within Germany, Merkel’s popularity continued to grow.
Germans called her "Mutti," meaning "mother," for taking care of their economy.
She even earned her own emoji, -<>- representing her trademark hand-gesture.
And in 2013, she won her third term as Chancellor,
but this term would turn out to be very different than the others.
"The number of migrants coming in to Europe
this year alone is now at more than 500,000."
"Almost 900 people drowned as they attempted the crossing from Libya to the EU.
"Some countries are greeting them with open arms. Others are setting up fences with barbed wire on top."
In 2015, more than 1 million refugees fled conflicts in Northern Africa and the Middle East
and migrated to Europe.
Merkel called on EU leaders to help take in refugees.
But several European nations pushed back, as
nationalist politicians in these countries stoked anti-immigrant fears.
This time, Merkel could not build a consensus.
Migrants piled up in Europe’s southern countries, causing a humanitarian crisis while undermining
the solidarity of the EU.
So Merkel acted alone.
In 2015, Germany granted asylum to over 140 thousand migrants — more than any other
European country.
At first things went well.
33% of Germans said the country could take on additional asylum-seekers.
Many even met incoming trains carrying migrants with support and supplies.
But on New Year’s eve in 2015 the situation changed.
“A day after the allegations of mass sexual assault were made public, Cologne continues
to search for the perpetrators and for answers.”
“The attackers are described as young men of Arab or North African appearance.”
A rash of sexual assaults and thefts changed public opinion.
After the attacks in Cologne, only 18% of Germans felt the country could take in more asylees.
And German public opinion reversed on Merkel too.
A far-right party called the Alternative for Germany or AfD, seized on the anti-immigrant
sentiment among voters.
1.5 million voters who had previously backed Merkel’s Grand Coalition in 2013, switched their support
and voted for the AfD in 2017.
Having lost support for her coalition government in 2018, Merkel decided to step down as leader
of her party, though she’ll remain Germany’s Chancellor until her term ends in 2021.
Merkel’s party recently elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, as its next leader.
She’s a moderate Merkel ally who could very well become Germany’s next Chancellor.
But for the rest of Europe, Merkel's absence could be more unsettling.
Since the Eurozone and migrant crises, Europe has seen nationalist political parties gain
popularity in recent elections, threatening the unity of the EU.
And Merkel has gone from being a champion of a united Europe to its last remaining strong defender.
With Merkel stepping away, these nationalist leaders could gain influence over the future
of the European Union.
And that’s something Merkel is very aware of.
So in this video, we touched briefly on the idea of a European identity.
And if that's something you're interested in learning more about,
you should check out this really great doc. called the "Story of Europe"
on CuriosityStream.
It walks you through the different chapters of European history.
CuriosityStream is a subscription service that offers over 2,000
documentary and nonfiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers.
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