A FEISTY Angela Merkel insisted yesterday that change to European treaties was the only way to create a “new culture of stability” in the EU and prevent another euro zone crisis.
She delivered an assured performance at yesterday’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference, leaving her critics in no doubt that, after a decade as party leader and five years as chancellor, Angela Merkel is at the peak of her political powers.
“I’ve heard we won’t manage to get the necessary changes to European treaties and that it’s utopian to think we’ll get agreement of all countries,” she said. “But faint-heartedness is a poor adviser. This is about everything: if the euro fails, Europe fails and, with it, the European idea of shared values and unification.”
The German leader attacked the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) for “undermining the European legacy of Willy Brandt” for abstaining from the parliamentary vote on the Greek rescue package.
That bailout was only necessary, she argued, because former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder had “ignored all facts and warnings” a decade ago and let Greece into the euro zone.
Dr Merkel’s tough EU reform line was in keeping with the rest of a well-received speech at the party conference, an event she admitted was a turning point for the CDU – and for her.
A decade ago she began her CDU leadership playing the role of radical opposition reformer, until the disastrous 2005 election result forced her into a grand coalition with the SPD and the role of consensus-driven moderator.
Yesterday the CDU leader conceded the first year of her coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP) had been bumpy, but assured delegates the show was up and running and the old reforming Merkel was back.
“It was a strong speech,” said Olav Gutting, a CDU MP from Oberhausen. “She’s really gotten going since September.” Since the summer break, the German government has agreed a series of major reforms, including a reworking of the healthcare system and an extension of the life of the country’s nuclear reactors.
At the same time, unemployment has fallen to a 20-year low and growth this year will top 3 per cent. Through all this, however, Dr Merkel’s party is still hovering at a disastrous 30 per cent in polls.
With three years to win back voters, the CDU leader used yesterday’s conference to reach out to disparate wings within her party, in particular those who have been feeling neglected of late.
To conservative members, the Protestant pastor’s daughter promised “value-based answers” on stem cell research and in-vitro diagnostics. She said: “Our Christian belief is what carries us, and what carries me in particular.”
To the CDU’s business wing, Dr Merkel has promised to discuss reform of the tax system and even tax cuts. But reducing the budget deficit has priority over all economic policy, she insisted yesterday.
With little concrete to offer, Dr Merkel delivered a stern defence of Germany’s export surplus from G20 critics, saying Berlin “won’t let anyone beat us up for making good products”.
“We will export ‘Made in Germany’ throughout the world,” she said.
Beyond its cars and machines, the German leader seems determined to export “Made in Germany” attitudes on finance and budgeting through the EU.
That, at least, is the signal she sent from the Karlsruhe exhibition grounds yesterday across town to Germany’s constitutional court judges, who may strike out Berlin’s participation in euro zone bailouts unless they see proof that the euro zone has shaken its addiction to debt.
The party conference marked the swansong of the CDU’s crown princes, senior figures wrong-footed a decade ago by Dr Merkel’s daring grab for the party leadership. After giving up their hopes of unseating her they have, one by one, bowed out of the political front line in the last year. Replacing them as deputy CDU leaders yesterday are a new generation of politicians, all ministers in the Berlin cabinet.
“They’re Merkel allies now and she’s sitting firmly in the saddle so has nothing to worry about,” said Prof Gerd Langguth, a political scientist and Merkel biographer.
“But they are ambitious and Merkel may soon find she misses the princes.” Delegates re-elected the CDU leader with 90 per cent support yesterday, with similar results for her new deputies. It was a nod of recognition for Angela Merkel’s solid, if not spectacular, leadership.
After a decade in the job, she looked uncomfortable as ever onstage yesterday after her speech, unsure of where to go on the stage and what to do during a 10-minute standing ovation.
The 1,000-plus delegates seemed to share her uncertainty. The polite rather than enthusiastic applause took a long time to warm up, like the relationship between the rank and file and their leader. A decade on, Angela Merkel remains the queen of CDU heads, not hearts.