We got such wonderful things from the Germans during Merkel, like for example: Nordstream, Ostpolitik (buddy Putin), Replacing Nuclear with coal, Nordstream 2.
Just a disgraceful legacy. And we have to live with it now.
As a german I’d rather have her back than continue having Friedrich Merz.
No change is better than change for the worse.
Of course I’d like it even more if we had someone willing to make changes while also caring about people.
Maybe it’s because I’m a foreigner living in Germany, but from what I gather few people really want to see her back in power. If anything, it’s more of a longing for a bygone era where stability and the international set of rules many had grown up with still applied.
Personally I believe her reign was one of the worst things to happen to Germany in my lifetime. For 16 years nothing really changed, unless her hand was forced. One of the very few unambiguously positive and lasting changes during her reign was marriage equality - which she personally voted against in parliament.
@jjpamsterdam i believe this is just why some people have this rose-tinted view of her.
Germans are afraid of change - unless they have been exposed to actual cultural exchange (No, ten days Ballermann doesn’t count) - and call it stability in order to give it a positive twist.
Merkel gave them/us just that - inertia.
Oh hell no. Merkel was 16 whole years of missed opportunities and messing up the future. The very same future we‘re living in right now. The only politician I feel nostalgic about is Habeck because he was the only minister I remember who took his job seriously.
Yeah - many of those problems now have their roots in the Merkel era and Merkel & the CDU did nothing to solve them. Those ignored problems are now coming into the daylight and it’s ugly
Omg for real, we could have the world leading solar industry right now, but Merkel said no…
I can’t believe Habeck didn’t make it, he was the most sympathetic and intelligent candidate we’ve had in the last 15 years. The irony is he had, by far, the best economic plan as well. And somehow we ended up with Merz instead 🤦.
Habeck and his wife translated Ted Hughes for God’s sake! What missed opportunity for Germany.
Habeck is a missed opportunity, indeed. It wasn’t wise of the Greens to naminate Baerbock at the time. She was the weaker of the two candidates. Against the weak opponents (Scholz and Laschet) Habeck might just have had a chance.
idk, Merz was a weak opponent, too. He kind of coasted to victory only due to the extreme unpopularity of the Scholz coalition government.
True, but the Greens, Habeck’s party, was not exactly at peak popularity any more at that time. During the previous election cycle it looked like the Greens might eclipse the Social Democrats and the Conservatives. With a stronger overall candidate like Habeck that lead may have resulted in an election victory, but that’s pure speculation on my end tbh.
A quote loosely based on Vladimir Putin:
Who doesn’t miss Mutti has no heart. Who wants her back has no sense.
