What happens if merkel gets her way

What I wonder is whether he has the kind of foresight needed to sort of look beyond the horizon and imagine what kind of future crises might be heading the way of Europe and Germany and prepare the country and its voters for that.

PITA: In that light, then, when we when look at the repercussions of what might come from this election, what will it mean for Germany and Germans domestically? And not just not just economically but the whole system of governance, the whole mechanism of the state appeared to be in trouble, whereas in Germany everything seemed to be running smoothly.

And that this growing dependence on the Chinese market had two deleterious impacts: one was that it gave the Chinese and the Chinese government a weight in German politics at a time when China is undergoing a distinct authoritarian turn that is problematic not just for Germany, but also for Europe.

And, secondly, that by garnering so much additional income, the German manufacturing industry and the car industry, I think, bought time for staving off innovations that other countries were making in artificial intelligence, the sharing economy, electrical cars. And we are now behind the curve on all these technological trends and quite urgently need to catch up. The political impact of that, the impact on the job market, the impact on the political economy, because these are mainstays of the German export economy.

What are some of the more international repercussions about what could potentially come from this election? What will its attitude be towards the European project, European integration, European enlargement? Will it invest more in Europe and in NATO in a way that is commensurate with its economic power and its responsibilities, I would argue? And what will its relationship between be with Russia and China?

And one of the more urgent questions that our neighbors have is, when are you going to wake up and realize that and conduct yourselves accordingly and conduct your foreign and security policy accordingly?

PITA: Alright. As always, thank you again for your time. The vice president is basically a part of this charm operation that the United States implemented towards France in the past month and a half [ Related material: The singular chancellor: The Merkel model and its limits Sharper strategic thinking will help Germany mend fences with US Listen to Brookings podcasts here , on Apple or Google podcasts or on Spotify, send email feedback to bcp brookings.

If somebody had done this to predict the likelihood of Merkel ever becoming chancellor of Germany, the answer would, at best, be one out of a million. Like many German politicians, she lacks both charisma and the gift of gab, preferring brisk and sober declarations to long speeches or rhetorical flights of fancy. With a determination and cold-bloodedness that took her colleagues by surprise—and served as a first indication of just how much everyone was underestimating her—Merkel denounced her longtime mentor and elbowed her way to the top of the party.

After winning a close election and cobbling together a governing majority, Merkel quickly developed her trademark style. With little ambition to set the political agenda, she waited out the big debates of her time until it seemed clear which way the wind was blowing. Admirably devoid of an ambition to dominate the airwaves, she kept her public presence to a minimum. Having grown up in a dictatorship, she could speak to the importance of liberty and democracy with deep conviction.

As an outsider, she had real compassion for the disadvantaged. Measured by her words, she was an admirable leader. Measured by her actions, her record is at best uneven.

Under her leadership, Germany failed to rise to its three biggest challenges over the past two decades. The first came after the Great Recession began, when countries in Southern Europe went into a dangerous debt spiral. A decisive leader would have offered them a generous bailout or, alternatively, pushed them out of the single-currency zone altogether. In the end, the EU avoided the worst-case scenario of a country crashing out of the euro zone.

But the social price for that apparent success was far higher than necessary, and with structural problems still unsolved, the next economic downturn may well prompt a rerun of the same tragedy.

The second big challenge came with the rise of authoritarian populists in large parts of Central Europe. As a result, autocrats are able to protect one another by vetoing any sanctions that Brussels might seek to impose on them. Institutionally incapable of reining in the budding dictators in its midst, the EU is no longer a club of democracies. Germans vote on Sunday in elections that will ultimately bring down the curtain on Angela Merkel's final term as chancellor of Germany.

When Mrs Merkel steps down after 16 years in power, how will history remember her? We asked four experts to assess her style of leadership and track record.

She has turned German politics into a discussion about policy rather than politics, says Matt Qvortrup, professor of political science at Coventry University, and author of Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader. Under Mrs Merkel, things have become much more policy-oriented. The problem with that, I suppose, is that it ends up being quite mechanical and scientific. Mrs Merkel trained as a physicist, and has a PhD in quantum chemistry.

So, for someone like her, she has an approach that is very factually based. That's not the sort of thing that is barnstorming. But in her own sort of way, she has staged a bit of a revolution in German politics and world politics generally. At a time when politics has become more polarised, she's tried to depolarise them by depoliticising issues. Mrs Merkel has been proclaimed by Forbes as the most powerful woman in the world for 10 years running. There is a whole generation in Germany that has never known anything other than a woman leader.

Her position has been symbolically important for women's representation, and she is known for bringing women into key positions. For example, she supported Ursula von der Leyen, the first female German defence minister and European Commission president. The targeting of Muslim women and rallying against so-called gender madness is widespread in Germany, driven in part but not only by the far-right Alternative for Germany AfD party. This election cycle, the issue of gender-appropriate language has become a politicised issue, over which Mrs Merkel has stayed largely silent.

Her policy legacy is a somewhat bizarre mix of modernisation and backwardness. Many of the modernising features - such as same-sex marriage, phasing out nuclear energy, and welcoming immigration policies - would not be expected from a Christian Democratic chancellor. However, the country is almost grotesquely lagging behind on big, pressing issues like digitalisation, climate policy, and demographic change. As Angela Merkel leaves office, the political landscape is much more volatile.

This concerns, in part, the increasingly complex party system and the AfD, which thrives on anti-immigration sentiment. There is, of course, the simple fact that she was the country's first female chancellor. I'm sure her pragmatic, quasi-presidential style of governing will serve as a role model for her successor, whoever it may be. Her legacy is a determined and silent one. Her leadership is based on sober evaluation and projecting reliability.

She's always been criticised for not being a visionary. But voters knew what they were getting with her.