Berlin
The idea that the former home of militarism and nationalism could become a beacon for human rights and peaceful international cooperation within one lifetime may seem far-fetched.
But with outsider Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president and the rising strength of far-right and populist movements in Europe, some have suggested that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is left as the last powerful defender of liberal values in the West.
Since taking office in 2005, Merkel has been a fixture of the international summit circuit, often providing the only dash of color in row upon row of grey suits.
She has outlasted most of her contemporaries — save for Russian President Vladimir Putin — and won plaudits for successfully steering her country through the turmoil of the global financial crisis.
Along the way, the trained physicist has deftly maintained relations with allies as they gained new leaders, including prime ministers and presidents whose positions were very different from her own.
“I could not have asked for a steadier and more reliable partner on the world stage,” President Obama said Thursday after meeting with Merkel in Berlin during his final foreign tour. He described the German chancellor as “a great friend and ally” who looks out for her own country’s interests while recognizing that this also requires working closely with others to solve common problems.
Merkel raised eyebrows last week when she departed from the usual diplomatic script after Trump’s election by suggesting that respect for liberal values was a precondition for Berlin’s continued good relations with Washington. Some saw her remarks as a sign that the chancellor was prepared to thrust Germany into the forefront of international politics and challenge the new U.S. administration if necessary.
Standing beside Obama, she pledged to “do everything to work well with the new president,” but insisted that the basis for cooperation would have to be “democracy, freedom and human rights worldwide, and to strive for an open and liberal world order.”
Obama’s decision to stop in Germany for two days reinforced the image of him passing the baton to Merkel. Rather than bid farewell to Europe in Paris, the capital of America’s oldest ally, or in Britain — which prides itself on a having a “special relationship” with Washington — Obama’s choice signaled a recognition that the heart of the old continent now lies in Berlin.
The leaders of Europe’s other major powers — Britain, France, Italy and Spain — will meet Obama in the German capital today, after he confers at length with Merkel.
“The phrase ‘leader of the free world’ is usually applied to the president of the United States, and rarely without irony,” Timothy Garton Ash, a historian and professor of European studies at Oxford University, wrote Friday in Britain’s left-leaning Guardian newspaper. “I’m tempted to say that the leader of the free world is now Angela Merkel.”