本帖最後由 felicity2010 於 2011-11-29 08:30 AM 編輯 " F0 ]* U5 i: ~3 w
8 H& K( `' }4 z! b' C, e/ xThe steely headmistress with Europe in her thrall Quentin Peel
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More than 30 years ago Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary of State,allegedly complained that he could not believe in Europe until it had a single telephone number to call. He should be happy today, says Germany’s popular Stern magazine.He just has to call “Madame Europa”, alias Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in Berlin. It even printed her office telephone number.
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Germany has belatedly discovered that its sober, solid and deliberately unglamorous leader is really the person calling the shots across the continent. “Whether we like it or not, Ms Merkel is the most important person in Europe today,” says Gerd Langguth,politics professor at Bonn university, and a biographer of the chancellor. “She may not like it herself, although the more she is in the centre of things, the more she seems to enjoy it.”公仔箱論壇+ A% d" u8 _4 j6 U. d) }, V; k, A
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As Europe’s sovereign debt crisis further rattled the markets this week the 57-year-old former physicist threwdown the gauntlet to her European partners by calling for “more Europe, not less Europe” as the answer. Addressing the annual congress of her centre-right Christian Democratic Union, she steered the party back to its pro-European roots, in favour of “step-by-step progress towards political union” in the European Union. It was not what the markets wanted to hear. They wanted an instant solution to stem the eurozone crisis.But it delighted the party faithful.
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Ms Merkel’s vision of the future was also more than enough to alarm the least federalist parts of the EU, not least the UK, where the very words“political union” are like waving a red rag to a bull. But by persuading her party that they can hope for “more Europe”, she has won room for manoeuvre to be more flexible in the current crisis.
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" W$ ]- t9 v- b0 w( i3 Q1 i/ f8 D5.39.217.76In truth, the chancellor has dominated decision-making in the EU ever since the eurozone debt crisis began in Greece two years ago, if not before. She may be soft-spoken, a consensus builder, but it is her thinking that has set the agenda in Brussels, and dictated the guidelines of crisis management. She insists there can be no bail-out without drastic austerity conditions. She is adamant private creditors must share the burden of a debt write-down. She refuses to call on the European Central Bank to be the lender of last resort to stop contagion in the bond markets.
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Yet popular German headlines that welcome the return of an “Iron Chancellor” – like Bismarck – fail to capture her flexible personality. Born in Hamburg, but brought up in communist East Germany, she came from outside to seize control of the male-dominated CDU in 2000, and is now its unchallenged leader.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb7 U& Q* o5 h6 ^# F/ U8 ^6 x( `3 `
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She was brought into government by Helmut Kohl after unification in 1990, as a token woman from the east after unification. He called her “the girl”, and made her minister for women and youth. At that stage, there was little sign of ambition. She may have been the daughter of a Protestant pastor but she was blessed with acute political antennae. While charming and funny, she can also be ruthless. Since she got to the top, she has carefully removed every potential challenger from office.' n# B& y6 i& ^+ R. c4 y% g
! P( b J- f# A& }/ Y1 _4 cTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。Like Mr Kohl, she is known for her remarkable memory. Indeed she is famous for her determination to master a subject better than any of the men she has to work with. As a scientist, she really wants to understand what makes things tick,according to a former close adviser, and once she has reached a decision, she sticks with it – unless circumstances change.
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Twice in the past year she has performed remarkable U-turns, and managed to persuade her party to follow her. The first was in reversing her government’s decision to extend the life of Germany’s nuclear power stations,following the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant. “Being a physicist made her feel comfortable with atomic energy for a long time,” says Margaret Heckel, author of “How the Chancellor Rules”. “When Fukushima happened in a high technology country like Japan, it simply was not in her projections. She understood that even in Germany, something unimaginable may happen.”
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+ F, Y$ q3 z8 I/ [+ xNot only that, she knew nuclear power would be very unpopular and boost the votes of the Greens. She dumped the policy overnight. Her second U-turn came this week: she persuaded her CDU to overcome strong conservative objections, and support minimum wages.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb! \$ e' r& Z" x' s' D3 O, @
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If she wins a third term in 2013 – she is still the most popular German politician, and her party is the largest – she can choose to form a coalition to the left as well as to the right. She first won office in 2005, bringing down the curtain on Gerhard Schroder’s chancellorship but since then has shown no sign of losing her zest for high office.
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“She never ceases to learn,” says Ms Heckel. “That is why people continue to underestimate her. Once you have formulated an opinion on her, she has already changed.”tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb: h+ s5 Q/ L% J! B9 v5 R/ l
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“She is a pragmatic problem-solver, not ideological,” says Prof Langguth. “She can change her position from one day to another. Her party does not like that. They want a consistent conviction. But the Christian Democrats ... know that only with her can they win the next election.”5.39.217.76( B& i/ |+ t1 }+ D9 {! A% _
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Critics say her approach to the crisis has been “too little, too late” to stabilise the markets. She is obsessed by the contradiction between a slow-moving democratic process, and the instant reaction of financial investors. She mistrusts the markets, and refuses to be rushed to respond. She is also deeply risk-averse,which endears her to anxious voters. Yet the pragmatist in her means she can change her mind, just as she did over nuclear power.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb; V e. h p( Q0 c
% ]) c0 P5 K1 `, ^% WTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。Margaret Thatcher, that other legendary female scientist turned head of government,famously once declared “the lady’s not for turning.” To many looking on at Germany in now Ms Merkel may seem to wield the same adamantine handbag. But do not be fooled: “Mutti” as she is known in the German media is an altogether more emollient figure.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。8 A8 q; [. T' e
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The writer is the FT’s Berlin bureau chief |
發表於 2011-11-29 08:22 AM
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