Merkel: The Teflon Chancellor

They used to call Ronald Reagan 'The Teflon President' after the non-stick coating on frying pans. Scandals and policy failures never seemed to dent his approval ratings as much as you'd expect. His genial disposition just seemed to disarm people.

I'm puzzled by Angela Merkel's surviving popularity. From a policy perspective, she's got, at best, a mediocre record. First, she's played a major role in the policy that produced the graphs above. What's more, she has broken probably dozens of (express or implied) promises to German voters about how the Eurozone would respond to the financial crisis. She's been wrong in so many ways: sometimes in the form of red lines that she or her surrogates promised wouldn't be crossed (but then were), some were in the form of predictions that turned out to be spectacularly wrong (Wulff will make a great President!), some were in the form of sudden policy flip-flops (shutting down nuclear plants shortly after endorsing them).

Normally, when a politician should be in the doghouse but isn't, it's because goshdarnit, he/she's just so darned lovable! But Merkel's neither lovable nor really hatable, her image is 'colorless and competent'. Yet Germans seem to be able to forgive her almost anything. I have a few theories about this:

1. She's still enjoying a first-female-Chancellor honeymoon.
2. By being extremely careful about what she does and says, she always builds in enough plausible deniability to avoid being too badly splattered when the shit hits the fan.
3. She's so boring that people just can't imagine having strong opinions about her.
4. Her colorless competence is actually what protects her, since Germans (1) distrust people who are too flashy or elegant; and (2) conversely tend to associate dullness with solidity and trustworthiness.
5. She's insulated by Germany's relatively good recent economic performance, but that will change once Germany enters recession in late 2012, as it may well do.
6. Germans believe that, whatever her faults, she's committed to ruthlessly pushing Germany's economic interests, and this is precisely what they want.

Those are my guesses. Feel free to put forward your own in comments. Or you can dismiss my entire thesis, that's fine, too!

Comments

[Kunar]

I strongly agree with the three reasons Johannes mentioned. Merkel's secret 2nd name is "TINA". There is no alternative to Merkel - neither in the biggest opposition party nor in her own. As a bonus reason:

10. The traditional rival of Merkel's party CDU, the SPD, is guilty of the anti-under/middle class and anti-social laws. Right now, there is noone at the top of the SPD that would commit that the flawed politics of their chancellor Schröder ruined their standing and created massive irritation among their traditional voters. Therefore, the SPD is no alternative to the CDU (which happily just continues what the SPD had begun).

[jabgoe]

By the way, it looks like your capchas got hacked, or your wordpress possibly: http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/german_joys/2010/07/airconditioning-coming-to-a-german-near-you.html?cid=6a00d834516a2569e201761636acfb970c#comment-6a00d834516a2569e201761636acfb970c , hacking blogs like yours is obviously becoming more and more common in germany, like air conditioning and deodorant. Could also be, that you run official ads for air conditioning and/or deodorant. Who knows. Hard to make a difference..

[jabgoe]

As a german, let me say: Oh man, fuck it! Merkel in disguise of the character of a bad austrian actor is a twisted representation of godwin's law. But the main idea of this cover is the combination of the top central headline with the picture. And these Lara Croft Gemas are super, all of them.

Are the brits really trying to tell the world that they know how it goes and the rest of the world doesn't?

My competence is not in finance and such, but those folks, that forgot to forsee the financial meltdowns of the last years are just a negative lighthouse. Their advice is to be avoided, no matter how one dislikes Merkel.

I feel a little awkward to be pushed into german patriotism by british stupidity, but ich won't help it...

jabgoe

[Daniel]

I am a German, may I venture an opinion?

First, the whole Euro business is much too complicated to be understood outside economists' circles and I don't think it has a great influence on Merkel's reputation, whatever she does. People know that they don't have a chance to understand how any particular decision will change things. This provided, it may be in her favour that she's so pragmatic and chamaeleon-like because that may be the best thing in a mess like ours. But I don't think that's the point because she was considered spineless and scolded by many people for exactly the same reason in connection with her decisions on nuclear power.

I think Merkel is in the good books at least with East Germans for some other reason, and #1 comes close to the truth but does not tell us the whole truth.

I knew Angela Merkel (not personally but from the media) when she was a hillbilly nursed by Helmut Kohl. She was notorious for her greasy hair, baggy clothes, drowsy accent and unability to speak in public the way politicians are supposed to. She was the next-door mummy without any air of statesmanship about her.

Now, why did so many Americans vote for George Bush, jr.? An American friend of mine told me that it was the fact that many Americans didn't want someone better or more intelligent than themselves to be President. That may be exaggerated a little, and it surely wouldn't have been possible that way in Germany. The difference is: While Bush's intellect and behaviour obviously didn't improve once he had entered the White House, Merkel's did, and that's what we recognize.

We saw her make wise decisions on her shampoo and hair stylist, buy fashionable clothes, learn to speak standard German, make witty remarks in front of the crème de la crème of European politicians... we saw a wallflower emerge from her mossback cabin and flourish. Before I get too romantic, I should add that few people really liked her. But she carried some hopes and her story proved that it was possible to make it to number one with a background like hers - being a woman, being from East Germany, and being hopelessly provincial.

I think you have these dishwasher-to-millionaire stories in America. Merkel's story is somewhat like that, and it still clings to her and makes people more tolerant towards her than with the usual male West-German politician who has always been slick and spoiled with success.

[Daniel Gerber]

I would go for #4. I guess for many Germans being a colourful AND a competent leader is an oxymoron. So her being not lovable actually makes her look more competent, as strange as this may sound.

[Roger]

If you quote a magazin, why not asking another magazin?
http://img.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/europe/2012/20120716_600.jpg
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2118797,00.html

[Johannes]

No more Mr nice economy professor, a broadside against Merkel:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/aufstand-der-oekonomen-breitseite-gegen-merkel-1.1402965

[Anonymous]

I would go for #4.

But do you seriously think she is to blame for the current crisis? What about all the other politicians out there? Last time I checked, GB, France, Greece or whoever did nothing relevant to stop the crisis, too.

So why her? Because she does not listen to economics who now say "spend", while the called for austerity two years earlier? The same economics whose theories led to the current crisis?

Why yes, let's just spend some more billions and wreck our financial system to save some people who spent what they didn't own. Besides: There is enough money around. Dispossessing the rich (e.g.) would immediately solve all debt crises. Spending money sure will not.

[miz]

It's mainly #2 and #5 but there's another point: The SPD's weakness.

Having been hugged nearly to death by Merkel in the Great Coalition the Social Democrats still suffer from the disastrous election results three years ago. And having designed a substantial junk of the euro rescue measures they can hardly criticise what they had invented without looking both hypocritical and anti-European. The same is true for the Greens, since they also voted for all the measures and that leaves only the Linke who are not taken seriously by the vast majority of voters. Thus, Merkel always looks quite detached and presidential and Germans generally like that (Adenauer, Erhardt, Schmidt, Kohl, many minister presidents).

Additionally there is a pro-European consensus among the German elites, which includes the trade unions, big business and the media. So there is no consistent and articulate opposition with a powerful base around which an anti-Menkel sentiment could rally.

And finally Germans a quite indifferent or even pro-European despite all the bitching that you get in opinion polls. Europe is not a major political issue for most people. The absence of successful anti-European parties is striking. There have been many attempts, especially after Maastricht, to profit from the introduction of the Euro, but none of those parties has prospered. This cannot be due to the gullible nature of the Germans who vote for parties pursuing policies they don't like. Rather I believe the overwhelming majority of Germans don't have any strong feeling about Europe at all. Whether it stays that way, we will see.

[Johannes]

7. The fact that most of the other politicians of Merkel's coalition are even more clue- and colorless.

8. The extreme weakness of the main "opposition" party SPD and the clue- and colorlessness of their candidates.

9. The fact that most mainstream media (not only BILD) mostly applaud the idiocies of the economic and foreign policies that only deepened the crisis, destroying 50 years of European policy from Adenauer to Kohl in the process. Instead they rather flatter them: "Hofberichterstattung" And Germans do believe what's in the main papers...

The politicians who are both color- and characterful as well as economically perceptive are mostly in the Leftist party: Lafontaine, Gysi, Wagenknecht. But this party is internally divided, struggling with its own problems and said politicians are demonized by the mainstream media.

[CN Heidelberg]

Hard to get mad at a physicist? Just so cute when she tries to cheer at football games but can't get her arms all the way up? :D Fun stuff aside, your #4 seems like a big one.