Press
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck attests that former Chancellor Angela Merkel is humorous and normal. A new era has begun with the traffic light government.
Berlin – Actually, congratulating someone on their birthday too early is bad luck. However, when it is accompanied by as much praise as Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) gave former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in a guest article in the magazine Rolling Stone However, an exception can be made for the way she treated her. What he particularly appreciates is her humor and political stability through her embodiment of “normality in perfection.”
One could imagine the former Chancellor “baking cakes or peeling potatoes or watching ‘Tatort'” or in the supermarket, in the cinema and in the theatre. “You could sense a closeness, a pleasant normality,” said Habeck. If you look at her nickname, “Mutti Merkel”, it is obvious that a similar image prevailed among the population. Angela Merkel was Chancellor from 2005 to 2021. The CDU is also planning a big celebration for the former Chancellor’s 70th birthday on July 17.
Habeck praises Merkel’s subtle mockery and peace in the Union – image of normality had dark sides
Merkel often put her biography as an East German woman aside for the sake of her image of normality. According to Habeck, she spoke “soberly and analytically”. The “subtle mockery” was “as much at home with her as cutting wit and humor – pathos, emotion, passion less so,” wrote the Vice Chancellor. Merkel’s humor had already caught the Green politician’s attention at their first meeting in 2012, when she criticized the speed of construction in Schleswig-Holstein teased.
At the same time, Merkel has also achieved a lot within the Union. For a long time, she has made her party “immune to the temptation of right-wing populism.” This cannot be said for the time after her, said Economics Minister Habeck. The Green politician described her treatment of male party members as a “victory over chauvinism.” However, Habeck also sees disadvantages in the peace within the party.
Also criticism from Habeck: Traffic light government more reform-oriented than Merkel’s cabinet
The Green politician did not only paint a rosy picture of the long-serving Chancellor. At one point he raised the question of whether Merkel had only kept the Union in the middle by “not making many necessary decisions that would have meant change.” According to the Economics Minister, the end of a “Merkel era” means an end to the normality that was believed to exist. In the face of today’s crises such as war and Climate change They want to offer a “middle way”: “to accept the truth and at the same time to offer solutions”.
Habeck described the current traffic light government as being much more reform-oriented and wrote: “We are now making up for what has been neglected for a long time.” This could also explain the unpopularity of the traffic light coalition. There are indeed management and performance problems. “But perhaps approval comes under structural pressure after a long period of inactivity when a government is a reform government,” said the Vice Chancellor. (lismah)
#Habeck #praises #Chancellor #Merkel #Comfortable #normality