A German election – and leadership style – worth watching

Germany's Sept. 22 elections seem set to return Angela Merkel for a third term. Her leadership style has become indispensable to Europe's future. Why are her qualities of character so effective?

|
Reuters
A giant campaign mosaic shows the hands of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her trademark diamond position indicating both power and modesty.

When asked to explain President Obama’s cautious moves on Syria, White House press secretary Jay Carney claimed the American people appreciate a leader “who doesn’t celebrate decisiveness for the sake of decisiveness.” He might as well have been describing the leadership style of Angela Merkel.

The German chancellor, who does her own grocery shopping, has been thrust by the eurocrisis into becoming the most powerful leader in Europe as well as the world’s most powerful woman. Her careful, step-by-step style of decisionmaking has steadily pulled the Continent back from a financial abyss. Her political skills at home – quietly stubborn but tactically flexible – have made her Germany’s most popular politician. In federal elections on Sept. 22, she is expected to win a third term, perhaps becoming Europe’s longest-serving female leader.

Germany today has become the world’s most popular country, according to a BBC survey. It has also become Europe’s indispensable nation. The export giant has financially rescued the eurozone’s less-disciplined countries – a dominating role that would make any postwar German leader somewhat uneasy, given the country’s past. The charisma-free Ms. Merkel has also led talks to redefine Europe’s grand experiment in unity.

Her newfound power in Europe as well as her style rely to a large degree on the qualities of her character. Nicknamed “Iron Frau,” this daughter of a Lutheran minister raised in communist East Germany is often coolly pragmatic with a methodical approach. She offers no grand vision for the 28-member European Union yet she worries for its future. Her insistence on austerity since the eurocrisis began in 2009 has imposed a difficult identity of German-style thrift on the welfare states of the EU and offended many in Greece, Portugal, and Italy.

Yet Merkel knows when to swiftly turn-about, as she did after Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, promising to phase out Germany’s nuclear plants. When fiscal austerity threatened the eurozone’s weakest states – also threatening Germany’s economy – she let up a bit on her demands for tough reforms.

True to her style, she has been more patient than bold in joining other Western nations in confronting Syria’s use of chemical weapons. She is not one to draw red lines, preferring instead to wait for a problem to ripen before making a tough decision.

Germany’s election campaign has been rather boring. Merkel’s main challenger, Peer Steinbrück of the Social Democrats, has stumbled in highlighting his differences with the policies of her Christian Democrats. But both Europe and the rest of the world should care about this election, in part because the cautious Merkel might make a decisive move in a third term. Germany could lead the EU down a new path. She is not one to be decisive for the sake of decisiveness.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to A German election – and leadership style – worth watching
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2013/0913/A-German-election-and-leadership-style-worth-watching
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe