International Leaders: Germany

Germany’s Chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel, has had an interesting political career to date. As a woman, she is part of a minority of female world leaders; as the leader of Germany, Merkel likely has the highest official post of any female leader today. One might argue that being a woman has actually helped her stand out in a male-dominated sphere and rapidly advance her career, which seems to have been characterized by a combination of merit and chance. It was not by chance, however, that Merkel became highly educated in sciences (see the fact sheet) and fluent in Russian and English.

Merkel spent her childhood in the countryside of communist East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall she became involved in the democracy movement and joined a new party, Demokratischer Aufbruch. That year her party merged with the West German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and she became Minister for Women and Youth. Merkel’s began to advance, and she became more noticed, when she was chosen as Minister for the Environment and Reactor safety in 1994. In 1998 she was named Secretary-General of the CDU and in 2000, following a CDU financing scandal, she became the first female chair of the CDU. Being a protestant woman from northern Germany, many were surprised by her being chosen to lead a male-dominated, Catholic conservative party with its support base in western and southern Germany. This may indicate that Merkel was highly popular among her party’s constituents and was able to use non-traditional forms of influence within her party.

Avoiding the scandal and openly criticizing higher-ranking party members who were involved (including her mentor), she was able to build her persona as trustworthy, courageous, and credible. Merkel was considered more popular among the German population than among her own party and its ally, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), whose leader (Edmund Stoiber) outmaneuvered her to become the party’s challenger for Chancellor in 2002. Stoiber lost a lead in the opinion polls and was not elected Chancellor. This helped Merkel become the leader of the opposition and the next candidate for the position of Germany’s Chancellor.

Merkel’s popularity among Germans increased when she criticized the government for supporting Turkish membership in the EU. She also supports strong ties with the US, as well as American open-market concepts. One of Merkel’s main goals is to improve the stagnant German economy (the third largest in the world, behind the US and China). Some of her tasks include reducing high wages and labor protection laws, increasing the average work-week, raising taxes, and improving the 12 percent unemployment rate. Also, she aims to improve the welfare system, which currently accounts for 48 percent of the entire federal budget.

A wave of renewed optimism about Germany’s economic performance in 2006 has been dubbed, The Merkel Factor. The number of Germans who believe that the government can contribute to an improvement in their lives was four times its level before Merkel was elected (just six months prior), 85 percent of respondents in a 2005 Der Spiegel (Germany’s largest weekly magazine) poll thought that 2006 would be a “good year”, consumer confidence was at its highest level in four years, and businesses were more optimistic about the future than they have been since 1989.

From her short hair to her “dull” clothes, it seems that Merkel is very non-traditional, especially considering her early years. Merkel studied sciences during a time when the field was heavily dominated by men; in fact, she obtained the highest degree in physical chemistry. Also, Merkel, in her second marriage, has never had children; this was likely due to beginning her political career at a young age. Finally, she is said to have become apt at hiding her emotions while spending nearly four decades in a communist society in which State Security Police were informed of every political dissent. Still, many perceive her as Germany’s new motherly figure.

Relative to many other world leaders, Merkel does not have “serious” problems; her country is not at war and its people are not dying of famine. Further, Germany’s strict code law system makes corruption less of a problem (though it does not eliminate it). Merkel’s problem in the near future will be maintaining her popularity among the German people while implementing plans to reform an outdated system of taxation, labor laws, welfare, and so on. Merkel must face a tradeoff: on one hand, labor unions have gone on warning strikes and workers seek higher wages; on the other hand, employers are not profitable with the currently high cost of labor and restrictions on firing people. How her Chancellorship unfolds and where she stands among her people will depend on her choices.