GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has faced strong criticism from an unlikely source, Helmut Kohl – a former chancellor and her onetime political mentor. Dr Kohl, in an extensive interview this week with a foreign policy journal, expressed doubts about her leadership and concern about what Germany stands for today and where it is going.
For Dr Kohl, now 81 and in poor health, his protège has proved a huge disappointment. Germany, he said, has lost its “old dependability” leaving allies confused and perplexed about the direction of the country’s foreign policy.
He paints a depressing picture of a leader who has lost her political bearings, one who travels hopefully without benefit of compass or maps, unsure of where she is and uncertain of where she wants to go. In a diplomatic response Dr Merkel says Dr Kohl’s past achievements – which include German unification – should be honoured and adds “every era has its own specific challenges”.
It is, however, Dr Merkel’s manner of handling these challenges that has dismayed so many, not just in Germany; in particular her failure from the outset to offer clear and decisive leadership on the euro financial crisis. In that regard, as Dr Kohl also pointed out, “too few actors of political conviction” have been involved. But throughout the crisis Dr Merkel’s leadership style has been reactive rather than pre-emptive, invariably doing too little too late to prevent financial contagion spreading to Spain and Italy.
The weak political leadership she has offered has created uncertainty within her own government and unleashed criticism from outside. This week, a cabinet colleague, Ursula von der Leyen, suggested eurozone countries that needed a bailout should in future provide “gold reserves and financial assets” as collateral for loans. The idea was quickly rejected by Dr Merkel.
Germany’s president Christian Wulff stated his view that European Central Bank purchases of the sovereign bonds of peripheral states (including Ireland) in the secondary market was “legally and politically questionable”. And the Bundesbank – Germany’s central bank – in its latest monthly report has also expressed similar reservations. Much now depends on what the German constitutional court decides. On September 7th, the court is expected to rule on the legality of the EU’s bailout policies. A negative outcome will plunge the euro-zone countries deeper into a financial crisis for which they seem unprepared, and present Dr Merkel with the greatest test of her leadership skills to date.