The expectations that Angela Merkel — who will run for a fourth term as German chancellor — is the West’s last defender of liberal values is her ladder as well as her crucifix. Now more than ever, there would be many who would choose to be critical of the tough liberal values she represents
last week, my co-panelist on stage at an international conference on trade in Jaipur whispered mockingly: “Don’t fall down”, while looking at another much younger co-panelist who walked down the podium in high heels. The young co-panelist, who was mocked upon, had made a stellar presentation, and now with some difficulty — but none that she couldn’t handle — descended the stairs to join the audience.
I worried that it is none too easy to be critical of those who overcome challenges. Even when handled with grace, there would be those who mock or complain. The grin on the elderly man’s face, who had made the comment on stage, was greater than a cheshire cat’s.
This past week we also learnt that Angela Merkel will run for a fourth term as German chancellor in a crucial national election next September. She used to be fondly called Mutti or mother, and it is hard to say when this nickname faded from common use. Perhaps during the refugee crisis, as the backlash grew against Merkel’s open-door asylum policy. She was criticised for approaching a challenge in an unusual manner. Her popularity dwindled, and yet I can’t imagine any alternative to her decision to let refugees into Germany. The purpose of politics can not be greater than humanitarianism, as the former was created to serve the latter.
But by now we know that the world lives in several parallel spheres. For example, my liberal opinions would stand a chance to be shared at best by my immediate social circles — even a co-panelist at a conference notwithstanding. The bubble I live in is thicker than I ever thought — full of those who saw beyond skin colour, men who saw women as equal, and polls that confirm our world views.
Earlier this year, a majority of British voters chose to exit the EU, paving the road for countries to shift from a stance of universal civic nationalism towards the ethnic sort. One of the most disturbing outcomes was the realisation that whilst all the major polls and my networks indicated otherwise, the majority of voters distrusted minorities and voted in favour of UK’s exit.
The US election results bore the same fate. A benign love of one’s country was replaced by a distrustful view to the world. Donald Trump’s win was contrary to most of the pre-election polls. The win was as astonishing to those in my networks as it was to me. It revealed that there were so many men and indeed women whose patriotism had turned into negative nationalism, and we did not know of it. How could we all be so blindIJ
Our personal history and immediate surroundings mostly shape the way we think. Our networks, too, are largely an outcome of exactly those two factors. Indeed, we also meet on common ground with individuals whose world view may be polar opposite to ours. In those cases, we are less likely to believe that this individual’s views might be representative of the majority — those that we perhaps do not know and do not interact with.
I am perplexed though by how far from the truth the polls are in the case of both the UK’s exit from the EU and the US election results. And so I am suspect to believe the latest poll in which Merkel’s support has risen to 55 per cent, up from 42 per cent in August. All recent polls suggest that the only possible coalition against her — a mix of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the left — will not win a majority. The polls indicate that Merkel will stay in office through 2021, beating both Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl to become the longest-serving German chancellor.
Merkel’s announcement to contest in next year’s elections represents stability in uncertain times. Europeans had once assumed that national identities would eventually blend. But the fruition of that is now questioned with the growth of parties like the Front National in France, Hungary’s Fidesz, Poland’s law and Justice Party, and Austria’s Freedom Party.
These parties cater to nostalgia, anxiety and antipathy amongst people, and all vow to make their country great again. In this scenario, the expectations that Merkel is the West’s last defender of liberal values is her ladder as well as her crucifix. Her supporters hope and her critics lament the same fact that once Barack Obama leaves office, it would be Germany taking the leadership role in making the world a more judiciously open, liberal, and kinder place to live in.
Obama recently pointed out that Merkel was “outstanding” and “tough”, and he would vote for her if he was German. Indeed so, as Merkel was probably the only world leader of high stature who reminded Donald Trump that his election campaign featured “confrontations that were difficult to bear”. I applauded as she said that Germany and US cooperation is based on conditions of “democracy, freedom, respect for the law and for the dignity of human beings, independently of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views”.
Yet now more than ever, I am acutely aware that there would be many — mostly not in my networks — who would choose to be critical of the tough liberal values Merkel represents. There will be some who would mock at her as she descends the stage. I will dare not believe any more — neither the pre-election polls and nor the open-minded liberal world I have created around myself.
The writer is Chief Sustainability Officer for the group of companies, Jindal Steel and Power ltd. She is a Global leadership Alumna of the World Economic Forum. miniya.chatterji@jindalsteel.com