Angela Merkel is Europe’s last leader standing. The German chancellor will soon announce she will be seeking a fourth term in next year’s election. Not so long ago it seemed that she might be unseated by the migrant crisis as Germany’s anti-immigrant populists — Alternative for Germany — took to the streets. Now, with a Trumpian storm rolling across the Atlantic, Germany, and Europe, seem unimaginable without her.
Ms Merkel’s carefully conditional reaction to Donald Trump’s victory voiced what most European leaders think but are too fearful to say about the US president-elect. Her words bear repetition. “Germany and the US are tied by values. Democracy, freedom, respect for the rule of law and the dignity of humankind — independent of origin, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation or political views.” Berlin would work closely with the new administration, she said, “on the basis of those values”.
Visiting the German capital this week, I caught the mix of pain and resolve conveyed by the chancellor. Pain because Germany sees itself as the guardian of the postwar international order so disdained by Mr Trump. It has not forgotten what came before. And Ms Merkel, born in the then communist east, knows all about freedom. Resolve because this Germany and this chancellor will not pay fealty to the president if his agenda is written by white supremacists.