These ideas didn't suit Merkel at all. In her view the old structures of Germany's alliance weren't up for discussion, so she decided to put obstacles in Verhofstadt's way. Not only that, the conservatives wanted to demonstrate their new strength, so they had to have a candidate of their own to thwart the Belgian. Surprisingly, on the evening before the European Council meeting, Merkel appeared at the gathering of the heads of government and leaders of the European sister parties. She had already persuaded the British Tory leader, Michael Howard, to put forward the widely respected European Commissioner Chris Patten for the post. He was a strong rival contender, particularly since Tony Blair, the British Labour Prime Minister and supporter of the Iraq war, was bound to vote against Verhofstadt and for the British candidate. As usual when such blocking tactics are used, both candidates were sacrificed – and, as a compromise solution, out of the conjurer's hat came the Portuguese conservative Premier, José Manuel Barroso. He was hardly Merkel's preferred choice, but at least he was a conservative, and he also represented a considerable setback for Gerhard Schröder. In Brussels people rubbed their eyes in astonishment – so far no one in Europe had taken much notice of Angela Merkel.
Yet anyone who was looking more closely saw a quite different picture: a woman who knew exactly what she was doing. As Leader of the Opposition Merkel was extremely active: she travelled Europe and made contact with the governments of Germany's neighbours. France's President Chirac was also on her list, but despite Helmut Kohl's advice she made no secret of her dislike of the French President's policies. And again, anyone looking more closely realized that here was a woman who had begun exactly where Helmut Kohl had left off. Merkel had a clear idea of Germany's role in the world, and of its friends and allies.
Questions of Belief
What Makes Merkel Tick?
Angela Merkel loves opera, particularly Richard Wagner and the tragic and fatalistic aspects of his music. Her favourite work is Tristan und Isolde, especially in the production directed by Heiner Müller, whose work Merkel, as a theatre-goer, would have been familiar with in East Berlin before the fall of the Wall. Müller's interpretation of Wagner's tale of doomed love was included in the Bayreuth programme six times, and Merkel believes that the production “verges on genius”. Perhaps she is so fond of Tristan because the king's son could never hope to be rescued. Only death could bring release from his all-consuming love.
Nor is there any ambiguity in her view of Der Ring des Nibelungen. Here Merkel's interpretation is short and sharp: “If things go wrong at the start they can develop in a number of different ways, but they will never turn out well.” Merkel doesn't believe in resigning oneself to one's fate, but she has emotive opinions about Wagner: “It grieves me to think that, even from the outset, the final outcome can't be avoided. So to do something properly you have to get it right from the start.”
The Chancellor could not have chosen a more fitting motto for her own life. Getting it right from the beginning, step by step, methodically, calmly – that is her aim, or at least what she aspires to. Thinking things through by working back from the desired outcome is a basic principle that she shares with her Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. Merkel hates it when events become inevitable or inescapable. She doesn't want to be driven, she wants to control and influence the course of events. Yet Wagner's grandiose manner, his powerful music and the weighty subject matter of Romanticism don't suit her at all. Quite the opposite: in style and character Merkel is the precise antithesis of Wagner's operatic world. But perhaps that is why, in her passion for his music, she allows herself one last spark of the irrational – just as during her childhood she dreamt of role models who were particularly remote from her own life: ice skaters, dancers, film stars.
Anyone who spends time observing Merkel will soon be able to understand and categorize her. The Chancellor reveals her sensibilities and idiosyncrasies in a relatively open way. She doesn't indulge in role play, she is not glib or capricious, self-important or condescending, she doesn't rant and rave, she isn't whimsical. It is easy to say what Angela Merkel is not. But if none of this describes her character, then what does?
Most people see Merkel as being typically close to her roots and “normal”. But perhaps this is where we discover why there has been so much interest in her personality: we suspect that there is another, different woman behind the Merkel that the public see. You don't get to be Chancellor if everyone can see through you. And so the same question comes up over and over again: what is she really like? What makes her tick?
The answer is hardly exciting: with Merkel, what you see is what you get. There are no great secrets behind her public image. This is a woman who has been quite closely studied by commentators as well as her long-standing entourage. A number of positive qualities can be attributed to Merkel: she is correctly described as a woman with an enquiring mind, always keen to learn. If she has to solve a problem she needs to identify all its elements first. Whether the question concerns the formula for calculating pensions, a housing bubble or the South China Sea, she insists on knowing the facts, she wants to understand the other side of the argument, even if it differs from her own opinion. Before she met the new French President François Hollande in Reims on 8th July 2012 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Franco-German reconciliation, she studied the history of the city and the relationship between the two countries. She dissects the CVs of foreign people she meets, looking for material that will help solve her own problems.
She has formed a particularly close bond with the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh: she is impressed by his political career, but even more so by his calm, serene manner and fatherly composure. If a day comes when Merkel can no longer marvel at new experiences, then, as someone close to her said: “It will be over.” Even those who plan her schedule take account of this tendency and know how to accommodate it. Merkel hardly ever travels abroad without visiting a scientific institution. In Indonesia she visited a tsunami early-warning centre, in Canada a marine research institute.
Merkel shapes her world view in an analytical way. She weighs up arguments, industriously collects facts, considers the pros and cons. The problem with this dialectical approach is that Merkel would rather find a compromise than give her personal opinion. She is far from impulsive as a politician, and no ideologist. In this she is the opposite of Gerhard Schröder, who frequently made decisions based on personal feeling. The ability to do that impresses Merkel, but it is not one of her qualities. She has developed a great respect for Schröder – she once described him as “a man of infinite ability” – but always with a sense of quiet triumph at the back of her mind, knowing that she defeated him at the polls. Schröder is a master of the moment, one of Germany's most instinctive politicians. Appreciative words for her predecessor come easily to Merkel: she sees herself as being engaged in a sporting contest with him.
In general, she admires people with qualities that are not her own, but prefers to work her way steadily forward. Herein lies Merkel's problem: if her opponent doesn't use rational arguments, then the logical framework ceases to function, arguments cannot be weighed against each other and compromises cannot be reached. The almost endless process by which Greece was supposed to find a way to save twelve billion euros while ushering in reforms drove Merkel to despair. She spelt out the arguments in favour of the reforms and the logic of thrift at countless Council meetings, as well as to the Greeks themselves. Counter-arguments were increasingly thin on the ground. But then the politics developed into petty haggling, something that she finds deeply distasteful. One of her favourite maxims is a simple one: “If you say you are going to do something, then you must do it.”
Merkel likes discretion, and is discreet herself. “We tend to be rather sparing with discretion in society, which has become quite loud,” she said in an interview with presenter Anne Will. For her there are times when there is something distinguished about keeping quiet – in fact, it can often be a political imperative, such
as on the eve of the general election in 2005 when, during a televised debate between the party leaders, Gerhard Schröder worked himself up into a rage and predicted that she would never become Chancellor, not with her small lead, and not against his party. If Merkel had answered back in the same vein it would probably have been all over, and the debate would have ended in a duel that neither could have survived. As it was, come the election Schröder was defeated and, despite its poor showing at the polls, the CDU pulled itself together – so in the end she did become Chancellor. So there it was: discretion, silence – “To me it has great beauty.”
This is not always the case – because Merkel is a sociable person who likes a good natter. Those who travel with her – her spokesmen and advisers – need more than just knowledge in their particular field: they need to know about other things, such as football, music, opera, art, history. Merkel values well-educated people who stimulate her mind.
But her approach varies according to the company, particularly when it comes to being able to speak openly. Merkel can be extremely frank, very direct in judging others when she is among close confidants. “Close” means the inner circle in the Chancellery – her private office, her advisers, government spokesman, those who give her morning briefings. These confidants also include colleagues such as Volker Kauder, Chairman of the CDU Parliamentary Party, the Ministers Wolfgang Schäuble and Thomas de Maizière. These trusted individuals have something in common: they all know how to be discreet. Discretion is a mark of loyalty. At the beginning of her time as Chancellor, Merkel would often seek advice from elsewhere; there would be dinners to which experts in particular fields were invited. But after a while these occasions became less and less common. There was far too much chatter. Quite recently, a professor was invited to one of these evenings, in which Europe was the subject of discussion. By the next morning half of Berlin knew that the professor had had dinner with Merkel. It will be a long time before he is invited again.
When someone doesn't live up to her expectations, Merkel can be cold, cutting and sarcastic. Those who work in her private office know that she is most dangerous when she is perfectly calm. When she is quiet, there is an outburst waiting just around the corner. Merkel never shouts, she just gets sarcastic – and then she strikes. When something has been brewing inside her for a long time, when an irritating individual has been getting on her nerves, she withdraws into her lair like a moray eel, only to shoot out when the time is right. This hard, unyielding side of her is usually only witnessed by close colleagues or collaborators whose political future depends on her, and whom – to put it bluntly – she no longer needs. Her latest prominent victim was the Environment Minister, Norbert Röttgen, who did not want to resign after losing the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, and whom she abruptly dismissed. Röttgen had refused to accept that this defeat in the polls meant that he had become a liability to the Cabinet and his Ministry.
With those whose careers are not in her hands, and whom she needs – such as the leaders of the coalition parties and the heads of foreign governments – Merkel behaves quite differently. She doesn't allow herself to lose her temper with them, nor does she openly show any preference. She would never say that she gets on better with Rainer Brüderle, the parliamentary leader of the Free Democratic Party, than she does with Philipp Rösler, the party's chairman. On a list of people she likes, she would never allow herself to rank George W. Bush higher than Barack Obama. Things are as they are: she can't change them, so she accepts them.
Merkel divides her political colleagues and opponents into two categories: those who know when to keep quiet and those who don't. On several occasions at the height of the euro crisis, the Chancellery invited the various party leaders to exchange ideas with her. Merkel was very frank about the seriousness of the crisis, which hadn't always been obvious, even to experts. Discretion was of utmost importance, because the markets – as everyone had now realized – would react instantly to the slightest rumour. In matters of discretion, Merkel has had variable experiences with her opponent in the 2013 election, Peer Steinbrück of the SPD. During the 2008 banking crisis, when Steinbrück was Finance Minister in the Coalition and, in an unusual show of strength, the Government decided, almost overnight, to guarantee all savings, they both preferred to keep quiet. But there were also periods of mistrust between them.
Merkel's relationship with the parliamentary leader of the SPD, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Jürgen Trittin, leader of the Green Party, runs more smoothly. Others senior politicians are regarded by the Chancellery as less trustworthy. However, Merkel's confidential meetings are dangerous for the opposition parties as well: she expects her opponents to understand that they are duty-bound to be discreet – but the political responsibilities and benefits are not shared equally. In the CDU-FDP Coalition there is a climate of trust between her and the FDP Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. Even in her own party it isn't always possible to speak openly. In the past, when aspects of foreign policy had to be agreed with the former Defence Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, many details found their way into the media. Since Guttenberg's resignation, however, things have been calmer.
For all her openness, Merkel is very careful about the people she takes on as friends. Almost nothing is known about her social circle. Klaus von Dohnanyi, an SPD politician from Hamburg, is said to be one of them; others are described as “opera friends”. But members of her circle never talk about their friendship with Merkel. The Chancellor maintains a professional distance between herself and those who work for her; she even addresses her personal private secretary, Beate Baumann, by her surname and uses the formal address Sie when talking to her. However, with a few of her colleagues, such as Guido Westerwelle, Edmund Stoiber and Horst Seehofer, Merkel uses the informal du.
Within the CDU there are other friends on informal terms with her, but there is also one particularly tricky case in which relations have remained on Sie terms: the Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. Her predecessor as Party Chairman is probably not really that formal, but they have continued to maintain a slightly wary distance from one another. During a European election, Schäuble and Merkel once let themselves be photographed together. Schäuble chose the caption: “Not always of the same opinion, but always on the same side.” At least it was honest. He had perhaps not forgotten that when she published a letter in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, publicly distancing herself from Helmut Kohl, she didn't tell him first. Or a year earlier, when she had quietly announced her marriage to Joachim Sauer, Schäuble had known nothing about it (nor indeed had the couple's parents and siblings). That hit him hard. In private, Merkel can sometimes behave oddly.
In the spring of 2012, however, there was a private meeting between them that only gradually became known to the public, thus producing an even greater effect. Merkel asked Schäuble if he would like to go to the cinema with her to see the French film Les Intouchables, released in Germany under the title of Ziemlich beste Freunde, which can be translated along the lines of Almost Best Friends. It is the acclaimed and touching story of a wealthy aristocratic paraplegic, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, who is confined to a wheelchair, and his rather unconventional black carer. Jokingly, Schäuble wondered whether he ought to go to the cinema with a woman who wasn't his wife. But in the end he and Merkel slipped almost unnoticed into a cinema on the Potsdamer Platz. The Chancellor and the Finance Minister – almost best friends. But only almost. Afterwards they went for a drink and watched football.
There was a time when Merkel talked fairly openly about her inner life, and so we know that she not only holds the word humility in high regard, but also its meaning. If someone is too forceful with her, she will say to her colleagues: “He needs a little more humility.” Every fibre of her being makes it clear that she sees her role as one of service, duty, structure. Discipline is a key concept in her working life, punctuality is important: she will drive herself hard, almost to the point of torment, sit in endless meetings and manage on only
a few hours of sleep. She gives an impression of utter sobriety, of being free of ideology, but also comes across as a consummate tactician. Merkel restricts herself to what she does best: debate and discussion.
She keeps to the facts, uses them to wrestle with opinions and win. She knows she has to work hard to justify her claim to power, and cannot take her unassailable position for granted. Asked about her relationship with power, she took a noticeably aggressive line: “I'm not a defeatist; one must never simply fall into line with other people. I like to keep my head above water. I'm no good at drifting.” Asked whether she enjoys power, Merkel replied, “If ones approaches it in the right way then it's just part of the job. It's not something one should talk about.”
At the beginning of her rise to prominence, it was to her advantage to be underestimated. She always appeared less formidable than she was. Politicians like Schröder or Kohl would never have made light of their achievements. Unlike Merkel, who once said, “I know that fear you get when things are going too well. I take the view that bad luck more or less tends to cancel out the good luck. In other words, when I've been lucky, when I've been through a good period, I'm always afraid that it will be followed by a bad one.”
Yet at the end of her second term, she seems more relaxed. Although Merkel has been under enormous pressure and the euro crisis raised existential concerns, she has proved that she is at peace with the world. She has twice been elected Chancellor, and has made it through two parliaments, hardly a foregone conclusion after an uneasy start with a slim majority for the CDU in a Grand Coalition. Still less was it to be expected that in her second term the coalition with what had looked like her ideal partner, the FDP, would turn out to be so fractious – and yet manage to continue for so long.
Angela Merkel Page 6
