Angela Merkel targets Trump, opponents, legacy in feisty
turn
The German chancellor is on her way out, and it showed in a
fiery speech.
By MATTHEW
KARNITSCHNIG 11/21/18, 10:54 PM
CET
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during debates over
the next federal budget at the Bundestag on November 21, 2018 in Berlin,
Germany | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
BERLIN — Angela Merkel is free at last.
Liberated from the weight of responsibility that comes with
being Germany’s supreme leader, Merkel, who last month signaled she would soon
ride into the sunset, delivered her most feisty speech since … maybe ever.
Standing in the well of the Reichstag chamber, ostensibly to
defend her 2019 budget, Merkel trained her sights on “those who believe they
can solve all problems on their own and only have to think of themselves —
that’s nationalism in its purest form, not patriotism.”
The targets of her salvos, though unnamed, weren’t difficult
to discern. In addition to addressing the leaders of the far-right Alternative
for Germany (AfD), who were seated just a few feet away from Merkel and heckled
as she spoke, Merkel directed her comments across the Atlantic.
Coming just hours after Donald Trump shocked allies with the
publication of his “America First” manifesto on the Jamal Khashoggi case,
Merkel could not have offered a starker contrast.
“It is in our national interest to ensure that the global
conditions for refugees on the one hand, and migrants seeking work on the
other, are improved” — Angela Merkel
For a leader who avoids rhetorical flourishes and typically
delivers speeches with the verve of a technocrat, Merkel’s address was
uncharacteristically emotional, impressing even the opposition, who responded
with enthusiastic applause at several junctures.
Whether moved by what she termed our “nervous times,” or
reflections on her legacy, as some commentators surmised, Merkel, for once,
didn’t beat around the bush.
Her reference to “patriotism,” rare for the leader of a
country where the concept still makes many wince, echoed recent comments by
French President Emmanuel Macron, offering a clear gesture of solidarity with
an ally who has come under harsh attack from Trump for questioning his concept
of nationalism.
Merkel’s primary aim with the half-hour speech, however, was
less to defend Macron than to offer a spirited defense of the global order, the
foundation of Germany’s post-war rehabilitation, which Berlin worries Trump is
trying to dismantle.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during debates over
the next federal budget at the Bundestag on November 21, 2018 in Berlin,
Germany | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
“Fortunately, the lesson of World War II was to create a
multilateral framework,” Merkel said, adding the United Nations makes it
possible “to work with one another to solve problems instead of against one
another.”
Trump wasn’t Merkel’s only target. She also took aim at
those in Germany, including some in her own party, who question the necessity
of the U.N.’s migration pact. The non-binding agreement, intended to offer “a
collective commitment to improving cooperation on international migration” by
setting standards for the treatment of refugees, was approved to little fanfare
by the U.N. in July. Since then, it has become a lightning rod for right-wing
European populists who claim that it would undermine national sovereignty and
open the door to mass migration from Africa.
While there’s no evidence for such assertions, the decision
by the U.S., Austria and other countries not to support the pact has
intensified the debate in Germany, where migration remains a hot-button issue.
On Sunday, Health Minister Jens Spahn, one of three
candidates vying to replace Merkel as party leader, suggested the Christian
Democratic Union debate the issue at its party congress next month before the
U.N. convenes a conference in Morocco to adopt the compact.
For Merkel, the debate represents more than just another
challenge to her controversial decision to allow more than 1 million refugees
into Germany at the height of the migration crisis. Any move by her party to
back away from its support for the pact would amount to an outright rebuke of
her leadership.
“Just to be absolutely clear, it is in our national interest
to ensure that the global conditions for refugees on the one hand, and migrants
seeking work on the other, are improved,” she said.
Citing the EU’s refugee pact with Turkey, which she played a
key role in negotiating, Merkel warned against thinking that migration is an
issue “that one country can solve on its own.”
Though Spahn appears isolated on the question of the U.N.
pact, the question of migration nonetheless looms over the succession race.
Even Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU’s secretary-general and Merkel’s
purported favorite for the top job, has pledged to revisit what happened in
2015 if elected in order to heal divisions in the party.
If Wednesday’s speech is the new Merkel, it’s a debate the
chancellor is prepared for.
“The good thing about the times we live in is there are real
differences again,” she said.
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