Yes, surely this article is a bit tainted by its use of a lot of right-wing tropes, but in essence it emphasises a very valid point, namely that Merkel is probably the internationally most over-rated politician of our age.

1/ https://unherd.com/2020/12/the-british-centrists-deluded-worship-of-germany/?=frlh

In office, she has turned into the ultimate incrementalist, unwilling to do anything bold (which of course owes a lot to the Grand coalition with which she has governed for the most part).

Twice she seemingly did something bold, but both times it was an opportunist u-turn.

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After Fukushima, she u-turned from having earlier reversed the German exit from nuclear energy which the Red/Green coalition had decided before her coming into power, because it seemed to her the popular thing to do.

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And again, during the refugee crisis of 2015, she made a very popular move out of opportunism more than conviction, which is then evidence by her reversal of sorts when later engaging Erdogan to close the entry route into Europe.

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And yes, Germany has massively benefited from the effective currency devaluation that Euro membership has provided.

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Also, she continued Schroeder's earlier policy of turning much of Germany into a low-wage economy, which helped reducing unemployment but at the cost of increasing the number of working poor, rising reliance of foodbanks and all of the downsides we know from the UK.

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She is a very smart politician, but in many ways just the perfect pupil of her mentor Helmut Kohl, effective at not allowing any potential rival within the party to maintain any role of power and prominence (Merz the obvious example).

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After leaving office in 2021, she will probably be remembered way too generously by Germans as well as the rest of the world, compared to someone like Kohl.

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I wasn't a fan of Kohl (because I had to spend almost my entire political socialisation under his government), but effectively his record is far superior to hers:

First German reunification, which looked like a political gamble at the beginning but proved largely a success

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Then the European project - where he played a much more constructive role, and unquestionable out of conviction, in contrast to Merkel.

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But I have always been struck by the massive disconnect between her largely middling record in office and the immense adulation she has received abroad.

Some more critical realism would be good in assessing her.

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