With Time magazine set to announce its Person of the Year this week, we asked Yahoo! Voices contributors for their picks.
COMMENTARY | German Chancellor Angela Merkel might have just saved the euro, the European Union and my retirement fund. At the same time, she seems undaunted by public sentiment, controversy and criticism. Clearly, she is my choice for Person of the Year.
Merkel heads the Christian Democratic Union, which is the German equivalent of America’s Republican Party. What used to be a staunch right-of-center party has since moved to the political middle. Nevertheless, Merkel never forgot her political roots and Der Spiegel reported that May 2003 found her going head to head with the powerful IG Metall union. The chancellor then called the 35-hour work week “removed from reality.”
I cannot help but admire a leader who sees the warning signs of a waning economy on the horizon and is not afraid to step on union toes to make her position known. Granted, I was at odds with the CDU since it ousted Social Democratic Party Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1982 – the Haus der Geschichte calls it a “vote of no confidence,” although I would have called it a right-wing conspiracy. Nevertheless, Chancellor Merkel is moving closer to some of the sentiments espoused by Schmidt, and this alone has caused me to follow her tenure with interest.
(It is here that I should mention that I am German, and that my family has had a virtually lifelong affiliation with the SPD and its politics.)
Early 2011 seemed to spell doom for Merkel and her coalition government. Quoting the AFP, Yahoo! News revealed in August that financial upheaval in Europe had propelled the SPD and Green Party coalition to a 51 percent advantage in the polls. Germans were rightfully concerned about financial aid the country would have to offer up to “debt-ridden euro-zone partners.” Would Merkel go the same way as Schmidt? Ah, but remember her 2003 labor talks and fiscal fortification of the German labor force!
What Schmidt lacked in guts and visceral ham-fistedness, Merkel more than eagerly espouses. Calm, cool, collected and with a Margaret Thatcher-esque logic, Chancellor Merkel has taken the bull — or Minotaur — by the horns. She acknowledged Germans’ unwillingness to bail out countries that failed to pull their own weights and at the same time sold the nation on a unified success or unified failure decision. The Telegraph reports that she approaches foreign powers, namely interim Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, with a tough-love attitude that would make a teen’s mom proud.
This iron lady is making a believer even of an avowed SPD sympathizer. She more than deserves the Person of the Year award.
Sources
Der Spiegel, “Merkel fordert längere Arbeitszeit” (Translated: “Merkel supports longer work week”)
Haus der Geschichte, “Helmut Schmidt”
Yahoo! News, “German opposition hits 11-year high in polls”
The Telegraph, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells Greek PM Lucas Papademos that her country will ‘stand by’ Athens”