Thursday 15th July 2021
Last visit to the USA in office
Merkel does one more lap of honor
From Volker Petersen
Once again, Chancellor Merkel is in Washington, and once again she receives a particularly warm welcome. Still, her last visit has something of a routine, as evidenced by her speech at Johns Hopkins University, where she received an honorary doctorate.
It is telling that the most exciting question to Angela Merkel concerns the time after her chancellorship. During her visit to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which became world famous during the corona pandemic, the director of the university asks her what she actually does when she wakes up for the first time and is no longer chancellor. He apologetically adds that this is probably a question that Oprah Winfrey usually asks, who as a television talker wanted to know something like this from her celebrity guests for decades.
Merkel’s answer is actually not worth mentioning, because as she made it believable, she doesn’t know yet and only then wants to think about what she will do then. But it fits with this visit to the USA that what she has to say about the current situation is no longer all that exciting. In a good two months, provided that a government is formed quickly, she will no longer be in office and then she will have 16 years of chancellorship behind her. Not only does she receive an honorary doctorate from the university, her entire visit to Washington has something of a lap of honor that she no longer seems to attach great importance to.
At least in a statement hastily arranged by the German embassy, she seems genuinely concerned about the disaster that has struck parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in the past few hours and assures the people there that the state will do everything to help them. The explosive nature of the Washington visit takes a back seat. Especially since no big news is to be expected anyway. There should be no solutions to current issues such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline or the still non-existent entry options for Germans and Europeans. Perhaps tariffs will be abolished? At least that would be something.
Not much to be expected
In the evening she will sign a “Washington Declaration” with President Joe Biden, in which the particularly close and particularly good relations between the two countries will probably once again be evoked. That will at least provide newsworthy images. But since Biden has already made it unmistakably clear that he is planning a 180-degree correction compared to his predecessor Donald Trump, at least as far as Germany and Europe are concerned, this statement should not bring much new information. What remains is the message that the house blessing between Germany and the USA is no longer crooked. Or as Biden already tweeted: That the relationships are better than ever.
Not much is revealed about her meeting with Kamala Harris, the vice president. She had met her for breakfast. In the run-up it was said that there should be an “exchange of ideas across the breadth of relationships” with her. The two will probably no longer work together. Maybe you just wanted to get to know each other. It was agreed that democracy must be strengthened worldwide. And Harris said she was very honored to meet the Chancellor.
But that is also the much-invoked “normality” that so many longed for during Trump’s tenure. The last time Merkel was in the United States two years ago, he was still in the Oval Office and the Chancellor served the liberal Americans as a counter-figure to her own president – who gave a widely acclaimed speech at Harvard and received a standing ovation for the statement, that lies should not be called truth and truth should not be called a lie. In her speech to graduates of the elite university, Merkel, based on her biography, called on people to believe in the chance for change and was unusually personal and inspiring. The speech had something of a political legacy.
“Let’s see where I wake up”
It was so to the point that there wasn’t much more to add. Although quite a lot has happened again since then. At Johns Hopkins University, she now spoke about the corona crisis, which was not over yet, and called for not to let up now in the fight against the pandemic. Right words, but now they don’t stand out from what the President is saying in the White House, and for the first time you don’t hear that from the Chancellor either. She routinely thanks in the black and yellow gown for the honorary doctorate, sprinkles biographical elements, thanks for example the United States for their contribution to German reunification.
As at Harvard, she sees the honor as an “expression of the bond between the two countries” and not as an honor that only applies to her personally. Merkel’s typical modesty. The professors had previously sung real hymns to their long term in office and praised their “unique mixture of pragmatism and idealism” in managing global crises. Then she answers questions about climate change, which needs to be combated, and says that democratic institutions have to be looked after, otherwise democracy will no longer work at some point.
Only the question of her future upsets her a little. She’ll take a break and think about what interests her. “Then I’ll read something, then I’ll get tired and close my eyes and then we’ll see where I wake up.” On Friday it will be Berlin, because she wants to take the return flight after dinner with the Bidens.
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