Inside Out | Why Germany’s post-Merkel shift is no threat to China’s interests
- Beijing and other governments around the world are watching with trepidation as Germany’s first post-Merkel government takes shape
- German politics will be messy for a while, but US missteps in Europe have short-circuited any coalition of Western democracies unified against China
Worst is the simple reality of Merkel stepping down. The longer the future coalition partners take to reach agreement on how they will share power, though, the longer it will be before Merkel goes.
During the last elections, in 2017, Merkel took six months to form her two-partner coalition with the SPD. This time, most pundits are predicting Merkel will still be acting chancellor well beyond Christmas.
For China and most of the world’s governments, Merkel’s departure is being watched with some trepidation. Her qualities – usually summarised as calmness, composure, sobriety, unpretentiousness, good humour, dependability, and impeccable skills in crisis management – have been indispensable over many international challenges and will be missed.
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Germany’s Social Democrats win election, chancellor candidate Scholz celebrated by his supporters