Germany’s Federal Chancellor abandons active politics but will continue to advise her center-right party
The acting federal chancellor, Angela Merkel, will occupy from this Wednesday, when the social democrat Olaf Scholz succeeds her at the head of power, the former office of Margot Honecker, the former Minister of Education in the defunct GDR and wife of the ousted chief from the East German state Erich Honecker. This was announced personally to the parliamentary group of Christian Democrats (CDU) when saying goodbye to his former political colleagues. Merkel, who is officially leaving active politics and did not stand for re-election as a member of the Bundestag in the legislative elections in September, will have her office at 71 on the central and historic Unter den Linden Avenue leading to the Brandenburg Gate. . The same office that was officially held until his death by the former Federal Chancellor, the Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl, considered Merkel’s political godfather. Federal Chancellors Emeritus are entitled in Germany to office, office staff and driver for life.
“I have not invented the crises nor have I brought them to the parliamentary group,” Merkel said in an intervention before the Christian Democratic deputies in reference to the long list of conflicts she had to deal with in her 16 years of government. The already veteran president also warned that the crises will remain there and will continue to occur “when I stop being chancellor.” “Be smart,” the conservative German leader told MPs in her formation with a view to her new role as the main opposition party in the Bundestag. He stressed that he will continue to be available to his colleagues to give advice, but that it is not his intention to do so publicly. “The CDU must continue to take care of the great tasks for the future,” also stressed the German statesman, who specifically referred to the threat of climate change, a problem that haunted her in recent years, also as a scientist. Merkel has a doctorate in physical sciences and before turning to politics she worked in research.
Ralph Brinkhaus, head of the Conservative parliamentary group in the German lower house, especially praised his co-religionist for her work as head of the German executive for four terms. He stressed that Angela Merkel “has marked an entire era and can align with Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl”, the first federal chancellor of Germany and the architect of national reunification, respectively. During her long tenure, Merkel has marked an internationally recognized political style, characterized by avoiding losers and winners and getting the opposing parties to leave the negotiating table with their heads held high, said Brinkhaus, who affirmed that “this has been good for him. world and Europe.
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