By: Dr Andreja Valič Zver
Actually, today’s column was intended to be dedicated to the rise and fall of Angela Merkel. However, due to the current ruling left-wing “political culture”, I also need to take a look at the domestic scene.
Well, let’s start with Merkel. As we know, the former almighty German “Iron Lady” from the ranks of the centre-right CDU dominated the German and European political arena for many years. Her career came to an end in 2021 – at least it seemed to be – with relatively predictable and seemingly calm retirement years. She somehow faded into the background, although it is hard to believe that, given her character, she truly wanted that. In a few rare interviews, she hinted that she was still proud of her chancellor years and setting the pace for Europe. She never regretted her policy Wir schaffen das, which opened the European doors to an illegal migrant influx threatening European civilisation since 2015. She forgot the mistakes of her foreign policy, such as putting pressure on Ukraine, which subsequently disarmed itself and exposed itself to “fraternal” Russia. Even befriending Putin was supposed to be exclusively in favour of the German economy.
Merkel effectively took care of increasing the democratic deficit after the last European elections in 2019 when, contrary to the rules and agreements at the top of the European Commission, she placed her friend, the rather unsuccessful former German Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen. We can only speculate whether there was an agreement in some secret associations persistently trying to control the European and global political scene. As noted by one researcher of populism, Merkel played chameleonically on the cards of populism, leftism, and rightism, as it suited her in a given situation. The daughter of a German evangelical pastor who “emigrated” with his family to communist East Germany (!) to proclaim Christ’s teachings among the local “atheists”, she spent her entire life unsuccessfully striving for her father’s love. She grew up as an extremely diligent, ambitious, and uncompromising person who was willing to do anything to achieve her goals, even betraying and trampling on her political mentors and friends, as happened with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The man who enabled her career ascent ended up under the wheels of Angela’s ambitions and sadly drowned in political oblivion.
MAYBE IT WOULDN’T HURT IF OUR “EMANCIPATED ABSOLUTISTS”, WHO HAVE COMPLETELY “CAST OFF THEIR CHAINS”, OCCASIONALLY TOOK UP ONE OF THE INSTRUCTIVE READINGS.
In the past week, German newspapers have been flooded with photos of Angela Merkel, wandering alone through the streets of former East Berlin with a personal bodyguard in tow. Her husband Joachim Sauer, with whom she celebrated their silver wedding anniversary at the end of last year, recently moved out of their shared apartment and started living with a co-worker almost twenty years younger. A top scientist, nicknamed the Phantom of the Opera due to his seclusion from public life and love for opera performances, was Angela’s support during tumultuous political years. During fateful all-night Brussels negotiations, she often asked for his opinion over the phone and considered his advice.
The political and personal fate of Angela Merkel is just one of the human destinies that historians – especially those from the Western hemisphere – joyfully and with an interesting sense of dissection describe in books that sell in large quantities. At this point, we could list a whole series of similar stories, “journeys” from an almighty ruler to a fallen angel, forgotten and often shamed. Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors, medieval kings, modern autocrats. The list is long, and it includes both men and women. But in this context, let’s briefly look at our current rulers who try to give the impression that they are almighty, infallible, and eternal. Almost sun kings and queens. And that we are here because of them. In this inflation of narcissistic self-images, majority media, especially the increasingly North Korean RTV Slovenia, are holding the “rod” for them. From the Prime Minister, the President of the National Assembly, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Culture, and so on, all together and each of them individually prove their complete unsuitability for leading the Slovenian state in very demanding and tense circumstances.
The famous English romantic poet Percy B. Shelley in his verses about the once almighty Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II shrewdly described a ruler who erected a mighty statue in the desert during his lifetime. Only two stone legs survived in the sand. Everything else crumbled and was covered with dust. Maybe it would not hurt if our “emancipated absolutists”, who have completely “cast off their chains”, occasionally took up one of the instructive readings. As a reminder of what will remain when the tide of (bad) historical memory has long washed them away.