July 7, 2011
Kurt Kiesinger, a German chancellor of the 1960s, reputedly rose late, spent his first two hours reading the newspapers and then fuming about them for another hour. Angela Merkel, the present incumbent, has much fuel for irritation. Her government is unpopular. Germany’s allies are frustrated. Europeans who look to her for leadership in the euro crisis complain that she has let them down. Businessmen, once among her firmest supporters, are losing faith. A recent cover of Der Spiegel magazine summed up its verdict on her government with a thumb turned resolutely down.
That Mrs Merkel has a thicker skin than her (mostly forgotten) predecessor was evident recently in her Bundestag office, just steps away from the upholstered parliamentary chamber. She seems unflustered by the tempests raging around her. She is funnier, livelier and more interesting in private than in public; one reason, perhaps, why she frustrates many who observe her from a distance. She has confidence in her judgment but knows that many affected by it, whether at home and abroad, do not. She doubtless hopes to be vindicated by the next federal election, due in the autumn of 2013.
Nothing causes more head-shaking than her handling of the euro. Mrs Merkel has supplied the necessary support, but only grudgingly and after much hesitation. Some wait in vain for a bold stroke to end the crisis and perhaps relaunch the stalled project of European integration. Yet Mrs Merkel faces mounting opposition at home from those who think she has been too ready to help the likes of Greece and Portugal. These critics include members of her own coalition, a three-party alliance of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister, the Christian Social Union (CSV) and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). If enough MPs defected over the euro, her government would fall.
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