Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Managing director from today
Steinmeier sacked Merkel and her government
Chancellor Merkel is only in office in an executive role: As provided by the Basic Law, Federal President Steinmeier dismisses the federal government after the constituent session of the new Bundestag. In a speech he thanked Merkel for her work, saying that her term in office was “exemplary”.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has officially dismissed Chancellor Angela Merkel from office. At Bellevue Palace in Berlin, the official residence of the Federal President, he first handed Merkel the certificates of discharge and then, one after the other, the members of her cabinet.
However, this does not mean that the federal government is no longer in office: Steinmeier asked Merkel in the morning to continue the business of the Chancellor “until a successor is appointed,” as the Office of the Federal President announced. The request was made on the basis of today’s constitution of the 20th German Bundestag and on the basis of Article 69 paragraph 3 of the Basic Law.
This Basic Law article stipulates that the term of office of the Federal Chancellor “ends with the meeting of a new Bundestag”, but that the incumbent is “obliged” to continue business at the request of the Federal President until a successor is appointed. The same article stipulates that this also applies to ministers at the request of the Federal Chancellor or the Federal President. Until a new federal government takes office, Merkel and her cabinet are only executive.
A small incident was typical for Merkel: after she received the certificate, she went straight back to her seat. Steinmeier asked her back so that photos could still be taken. “Every year you have to stay longer as Chancellor,” Merkel whispered to Steinmeier with a smile.
“My inner mechanisms are quite intact”
Steinmeier had previously thanked Merkel very warmly in a speech for her 16-year term in office, “during which you led our country through a time that was not exactly poor in crises and upheavals”. Merkel has earned Germany “esteem, respect, even affection” in Europe and around the world.
With a view to the Corona crisis, Steinmeier emphasized the special character of the recent past: “To say that the previous legislature was challenging does not even come close to the tasks that had to be mastered.” He recalled that the beginning of this coalition was “anything but easy”; the grand coalition was the last remaining option after exploratory talks to form a Jamaica government fell through in 2017. The Federal President emphasized that this federal government “opposed the tendencies of division in society, brutality and hatred not only with goodwill”, but also with concrete policies. Among other things, he mentioned the legislative packages against hatred and agitation on the Internet.
Steinmeier emphasized that a chancellorship was coming to an end “which one can count among the great ones in the history of this republic”. Merkel’s reign was “exemplary”. He remembered one Interview that journalist Günter Gaus conducted with Merkel in 1991. “The reason for the interview was your nomination as deputy party chairman of the CDU,” said Steinmeier.
“Günter Gaus was obviously irritated by the rapid pace of this political ascent of a still almost unknown person to the top of the Union. He asked you if it wasn’t going a little too fast for you, if you weren’t afraid of being ‘more an object than a subject of your own history “To be and to become.” Oh, you know, my inner mechanisms are quite intact, “you answered with a fine, slightly mischievous smile to this question, which was asked a little bit impudently.”
“Formative for a whole generation”
In this interview, Merkel appeared as a young politician “who is very focused and convincing in representing an East German self-confidence that should not be confused with West German self-confidence,” said Steinmeier. “An East German who knows that her life story has led her to her own experiences and insights that after the end of the GDR were not simply a canceled ticket to the West. And she is convinced that this experience in the party leadership of the CDU, as in federal German politics as a whole, it must find its place if unity is to succeed. And Chancellor: You should be right! ”
Merkel has shaped a whole generation of young women and men, “for whom she has exemplified a new, very unique form of leadership,” said Steinmeier. He also paid tribute to her “role of mediator in the center of Europe”. He added: “I am sure that this role, this voice that you have, will continue to be important for Europe in the future.”