A visit to remember: Merkel being presented books after she paid homage at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi in 2019 | PTI
A 16-YEAR-LONG ERA is coming to an end. If you look at world leaders whose tenures coincided with Angela Merkel’s chancellorship in Germany, you will see among them four American presidents, four French presidents and two Indian prime ministers. Merkel took charge four years after the 9/11 attacks. She has often been at the helm of crisis management, and she changed the prevailing political landscape.
The Indo-German relationship has become much stronger in her time. It is partly because of her interest, and mostly because of India emerging as a power. She has always believed in India as a country and as a multicultural powerhouse of 1.4 billion people. She has said several times that she has a lot of respect for India because the people, the administration, the languages, the states, the religions and the cultural influences are all so different, and that running such a country takes a lot of skill. It is one of the things she admires about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As she often says, “It is so difficult to be in his shoes.”
Ten years ago, we started the biennial Indo-German consultation, which is very helpful because every two years you can set an agenda. We do not have it with many countries. It was her decision to do it.
Merkel met Modi five times in Berlin and she visited India four times. She has always been interested in India and its culture. It was also a philosophical interest, about organising a country with 7,000 years of culture and without easy neighbours. She always wanted to see things in India. The last time she came here was in 2019, when we broke protocol and went to the Jama Masjid. We could stay there only for half an hour. But she got to see at least something. I guess it is the price that you pay for being such a known face. You cannot do all the things you want.
I have worked very closely with her. I told her I did not want to go to France or Russia as ambassador. I said I wanted to go to India. And she agreed, as she had an understanding about it. She also knows that I am a musician, so she said I would be in my element here. She said India was an important country and that there was something special about it. I think perhaps the physicist in her wants to go to the real source of things. Why is India so complex? What does it take to run India?
Modi and Merkel see eye to eye on many issues, like the reform of the UN Security Council. India and Germany believe that it is an outdated arrangement. The UN is losing its credibility, unless it is changed. That is why we are in the G4 [along with Brazil and Japan].
India has been a peaceful nation; it never invaded any other country. Moreover, there is a lot of German interest in Indian culture. The economy is also important. We have 2,000 German companies in India. And we need to look at future technologies such as Economy 4.0, Industry 2.0 and artificial intelligence. But how do we go about it after the pandemic? There are more and more robots. But we need jobs for our people. What do we do? Who pays the people who are unemployed now? The digital revolution.
Merkel and Modi | Arvind Jain
The future of work was a matter of discussion when Merkel and Modi met. The last time the prime minister was in Germany (April 2018, I think), he had dinner with the chancellor. She hosts special guests in a room with a balcony, in the chancellery. The two leaders were on the balcony. It was really cold, but they kept on talking, I think for more than half an hour. She did not tell me what they were talking about, but knowing her, it must be the philosophical aspect. She always talks very positively of Modi.
As a leader, Merkel is moderate and does not show much emotion. As a politician, you have to sometimes keep your emotions under check. That is helpful, especially during a crisis. Merkel is modest, smiles a lot and has a girlish charm. She is different from some of her former flashy male counterparts like former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and former US president Donald Trump, who like to show off. She does not like mansplaining. She would rather be quiet, but would make her point.
While dealing with world leaders—be it Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin—she would remain focused. She is also a good listener. If you are in the car with her, she might open up, but she mostly listens. It is interesting how she has kept her empathy and curiosity alive even after 16 years in power.
Walter J. Lindner
Such a long tenure changes people, it makes them tough. But if you meet Merkel privately, she still radiates the aura of a young girl. She is clever, fast thinking, funny and charming at the same time. And she likes jokes. Many politicians are serious and tense all the time, but she likes to let go at times.
Merkel is never fake. Even when the whole world showered love on president Barack Obama, she would say, “Let us not go overboard”. With Trump, she had made it clear that he could not treat her as he pleased.
As one German politician said, becoming chancellor is like climbing Mount Everest. Normal politicians reach up to 7,000m, which is difficult enough. But to be chancellor, you have to climb the last 1,000m, which is the death zone. There you have to be extremely fit and good and show that you are better than others. There is no room for error. Merkel did that seven days a week, 24 hours a day for 16 years, dealing with international politics, domestic politics and party politics.
After a while, she gained the reputation of being an extremely capable leader. Many around the globe look up to her and ask for her advice. It is not easy to stay modest and not let it get to your head. But Merkel has done it.
Two of her major decisions with far reaching repercussions, which she made despite much resistance, were: giving up nuclear power in highly industrialised Germany and accepting a million refugees. Merkel’s own party was a big supporter of nuclear power, but after the Fukushima disaster, she said, “We cannot do this. It is not responsible and morally justifiable anymore. We don’t know what to do with the waste, we cannot exclude tragedies like the one in Japan. If this happens here, I am the one responsible.”
In 2015, she accepted a large number of refugees, saying “Wir schaffen das (We can do it)”. It caused a lot of resistance in Germany, but she held the course. She did these two things because she has a clear moral compass. She has it, maybe because she is the daughter of a priest. She has ethics in politics. People, even ambassadors, who never voted for her, changed their minds and became strong Merkel supporters in the end. If she would run again, she would very likely have achieved a fifth term as chancellor.
The author is the German ambassador to India.