Chancellor Angela Merkel’s New Year’s speeches were usually aspiration exercises in the political agenda, which touched on dozens of broad themes such as immigration and climate change, and sometimes presented her latest projects for Germany.
But Merkel’s speech this year, her 16th as chancellor, is noticeably different. For almost certainly her last New Year’s Eve speech as leader of the government, as she is expected to leave office in 2021, she focuses on a single topic: the coronavirus.
“The coronavirus pandemic was and was a political, social and economic challenge that was once a century,” she said. Merkel in the annual pre-recorded television speech followed by millions of German households.
The pandemic killed more than 33,000 people in Germany and sickened hundreds of thousands more. And even though generous government subsidies have averted much of the widespread economic pain experienced by other countries, there are long-term economic consequences for the country.
As the speech makes clear, the pandemic Mrs. Merkel’s last full year in office strengthened and a period in which she hoped to strengthen her legacy with leadership on issues such as climate change, digital transformation and a robust social state.
Abroad, Ms. Merkel hoped to focus on tackling issues such as refugees and European Union unity as played out by Brexit and countries such as Hungary and Poland tested the bloc’s liberal values. Instead, she spent much of her time during Germany’s six-month term in the rotating presidency of the European Council, traveling to Brussels for meetings to persuade EU members to break budget rules and raise a fund. to counteract the economic consequences of the pandemic.
‘I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that we have never experienced such a difficult year in the last 15 years – and we have never greeted the new year with so much hope, despite all our worries and a degree of skepticism. , “she says.
As she remarks in the speech, Ms. Merkel will not run in the next election. In a few weeks from now, those in her party who hope to succeed her – a powerful state governor, a former political rival and a senior lawmaker – will compete for the leadership of her party.
But the winner of the contest faces a difficult road to the chancellor. None of them are worshiped like me. Merkel, who after a decade and a half in office and especially after her handling of the pandemic, is still Germany’s most popular politician.
Outside of politics, the country’s liberal consensus also seemed increasingly in jeopardy as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against Covid-19 regulations because they either did not believe the coronavirus was real, or thought the government had no business has to put in place measures to stop it.
“I can only imagine how painful it must be for those grieving over loved ones who are lost to the coronavirus or themselves struggling with the long-term consequences of this disease to see deliberate deniers who dispute the existence of the virus,” says me. Merkel and name conspiracy theories. about the virus “cynical and cruel”.
The protests resonate with the country’s far right. Authorities banned a planned rally of protesters opposed to the Covid-19 restrictions in Berlin, fearing the event would lead to new infections.
In Germany, the tradition of an annual speech by the country’s leader dates back at least to the turn of the last century, when Kaiser Wilhelm II gave speeches from a balcony in Berlin. The practice continued during the Weimar Republic (when it was first broadcast) and the Third Reich. In recent decades, it has been a tradition for the country’s president to oversee Christmas and the chancellor on New Year’s Eve.
Even as Mrs. Merkel speaks of the hope that accompanies the coronavirus vaccinations that began in Germany on Sunday, she admits that the situation remained dire. “It’s a harsh winter and it’s far from over,” she says.
The health authorities in Germany registered record infections despite a week-long exclusion, and on Tuesday reported 1,129 Covid-19 deaths in one day, a record.
The broadcast of me. Merkel is likely to be seen by more Germans than the more than three million viewers who watched it last year, as it did not have to compete with the country’s usually noisy ones for the first time since television broadcasts in the 1950s. New Year’s Eve traditions. Fireworks are banned across the country, and many places have curfew rules. As in other cities, a larger police force was sent to Berlin to patrol the streets to break up rallies.
The last New Year’s Eve speech of me. Merkel also comes after a year during which the usually tacit chancellor was forced on several occasions to address Germans directly, usually in an attempt to gain acceptance for new coronavirus rules.
Video clips of her explaining scientific details on top of her head went viral when Germans looked at her calm and considerate leadership during the crisis.