"Die Bundeskanzlerin" : Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician, member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Chancellor Federal of the country since 22 November 2005.

A trained physicist, she has been elected in the Bundestag since 1991. She was Federal Minister for Women and Youth at Kohl IV from 1991 to 1994, before being appointed to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Protection of Nature and Nuclear Safety at Kohl V until 1998. In 2000, she became the first female president of the CDU.

After the relative victory of the right in the 2005 Federal Election, she is invested Chancellor Federal, forming a grand coalition that combines the CDU / CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She is reappointed as head of a CDU / CSU-FDP government in 2009, and then of a new coalition government CDU / CSU-SPD in 2013 and 2018.

While it enjoys economic results deemed satisfactory, it is however weakened by its policy of opening the borders during the migration crisis in Europe and the historically low score collected by the CDU / CSU in the 2017 federal elections.These elections lead to a six-month political crisis - an unprecedented situation in the post-war Germany.

• Her First Term :

Angela Merkel is a candidate for the Chancellery for the Bundestag elections of 18 September 2005. The CDU / CSU union she leads gets 35.2% of the vote, ahead of the SPD at 34.2%. On 20 September, at the first meeting of the Union's parliamentary group since the vote, she was re-elected president of the group by 98.6% of the vote.

On the 10th October 2005, after five weeks of difficult negotiations, the SPD and the CDU / CSU reached an agreement by which Angela Merkel is Chancellor Federal. She is elected by the Bundestag on the 22nd November. Angela Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany at 51 years old. She is also the youngest political figure in German history to hold this position. She won the highest number of votes in the Bundestag of all Chancellery elections.

According to the political program proposed in the 2005 election, Angela Merkel wants to intensify the course of reforms initiated by Gerhard Schröder, particularly in the field of the labor market. Angela Merkel wants to allow the hiring of workers outside the framework of the collective agreements. However, she proposes a simplification of the tax system, and a reduction in public spending. On the international front, she opposes Turkey's entry into the European Union, preferring a privileged partnership. Merkel was also opposed to the fact that Kosovo could become a state independent of Serbia.

During her first term, Angela Merkel enjoys a popularity rating of more than 60% positive opinions, an unprecedented score in German history and unique for a head of European government in office.

• Her Second Term :

On the 27th September 2009, the CDU / CSU won the parliamentary elections, with 33.8% of the vote. The SPD, led by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, gets only 23.0% of the vote. This is the worst score of the party since the creation of the Federal Republic. The "big coalition" ends and is replaced by a "black-yellow coalition" between the CDU / CSU and the FDP liberals. Angela Merkel is then the first Chancellor since Konrad Adenauer to have led at least two different coalitions.

At the end of 2010, debates such as extending the operating life of nuclear power plants or immigration divide the Merkel Cabinet and the majority. In October 2010, during the debate on the integration of Muslims linked to the publication of Thilo Sarrazin's book, she states that "the German multicultural model has totally failed", recognizing, however, the importance of immigration for German economy.

On November 17, 2010, Barack Obama, President of the United States, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Liberty, the highest American civil decoration, which is awarded "to people who have contributed to the security or to the national interests of the United States".

In July 2011, she announced that she planned to run for her own succession in the federal elections scheduled for 2013. Re-elected Federal President of the CDU for the seventh time on the 4th December 2012 by 97.9% of the vote, her rating of popularity reached a record 81% of favorable opinions. Often described as hard-working, reassuring and balanced, even discreet by nature, Angela Merkel remains very popular with Germans.

At the end of the first two terms of Angela Merkel, Germany is doing better overall than other European countries in the context of the financial crisis of 2009 and the crisis in the euro area. The Chancellor introduced the Kurzarbeit, which prevented mass lay-offs, saved jobs and allowed companies to restart stronger when the storm was over. The result is a thriving economy, while noting that inequalities have widened under Merkel. The disparities between the richest and the poorest are deeper.

• Her Third Term :

In the federal elections of the 22sd September 2013, the CDU / CSU won 41.5% of the vote, which is its highest score since 1994.

Angela Merkel is elected for a third term as Chancellor of the Federal Republic on the 17th December. She is the fourth incumbent Federal Chancellor to start a third term after Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl. She is only the third to do so after having chained two consecutive full terms.

It gradually embodies the German hegemony over Europe. It plays a very active external role in the East-Ukrainian war, which signed on 12 February 2015 in Minsk a new cease-fire agreement. It also plays a decisive role in the resolution of the crisis of the Greek public debt being severe with Greece and waving the threat of exit from the country of the euro area.

In 2015, confronted with the issue of the migration crisis in Europe, she said that Germany must be a host country. It therefore sided with refugees in opposition to demonstrations against the settlement of migrants. However, it wishes to promote an agreement on a "binding" distribution of migrants in the different countries of the European Union. This proposal stumbles on the rejection of four countries in Central Europe and Denmark. Faced with the influx of migrants, his policy is severely criticized. On the 13rd September 2015, his government took the decision to reinstate controls at its border with Austria.

While described as increasingly isolated within the European Union in its desire to impose its migration policy, its European partners blame it for negotiating alone with Turkey. At the end of April 2016, it accepts the conditions of President Erdoğan to grant the right to Turks to circulate in the Schengen area without a visa; it also wants to relaunch the accession negotiations of Turkey to the European Union.

• Her Fourth Term :

The CDU-CSU alliance topped the elections of 24 September 2017 with 32.9% of the vote, a historically low result.

These elections plunge Germany into an unprecedented political stalemate. For several months, the reduced role of Angela Merkel weakens her authority domestically and internationally, where she is challenged by Emmanuel Macron in France.

On the 7th February 2018, a big coalition agreement is signed and approved by SPD members. While the left gets several important ministries Angela Merkel recognizes paintful concessions. This big coalition gathers less than 55% of the votes cast in the federal elections. Angela Merkel is re-elected Chancellor Federal on the 14th March 2018.

Nevertheless, as of June 2018, she is confronted with strong governmental tensions. On 1 July, Horst Seehofer threatens to resign from the presidency of the CSU and the Federal Ministry of the Interior to protest against his asylum policy which he considers too lax. He finally finds with Angela Merkel an agreement on measures to reduce illegal immigration. The agreement provides that asylum seekers arriving in Germany must be detained in border transit centers before being returned to their country of registration. These returns will be organized in accordance with agreements with the States concerned. In September 2018, the members of the CDU oppose the reappointment of Volker Kauder, one of Angela Merkel's faithful, as president of the CDU / CSU group. In October 2018, the CDU / CSU achieves historically low scores in the regional elections in Bavaria and Hesse this fall being probably due to the migration crisis.

In this context, the replacement of Angela Merkel at the head of the CDU is regularly evoked105. His support for the election of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as general secretary of the CDU in February 2018 is seen as the first clear signal in the debate about her succession, 122. Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected head of the party on 7 December, ending the Chancellor's 18-year presidency.

Named twelve times the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, she is long perceived as the most powerful political figure in the European Union.

The German chancellor announced Monday, October 29, 2018, that she would leave the head of the state at the end of his mandate as Chancellor, in 2021, and that she would withdraw from political life.

SOURCES

• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel#Chancelière_fédérale_(depuis_2005)

• https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2018/10/29/allemagne-apres-un-nouveau-revers-electoral-merkel-ne-se-representera-pas-a-la-presidence-de-son-parti_5376040_3214.html

• https://www.shz.de/deutschland-welt/politik/besuch-in-hannover-obama-dankt-merkel-fuer-die-freundschaft-id13351371.html

• https://fr.timesofisrael.com/lallemagne-a-bout-de-patience-avec-la-turquie/