Our lady of Europe

“To get it right, you have to do it right from the very beginning. If you get things wrong at the start, they'll never come right, no matter what happens in the interim.”

I was on board the Bundes Luftwaffe (German Air Force One) Airbus A319 in the autumn of 2007 accompanying the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a State visit to Malaysia and India. It was during the four days that followed that I was convinced she could not have found a more befitting dictum.

Her way is to get things right from the start, step by step, meticulously and gently. Perseverance, patience, tenacity, thoroughness, single-minded purpose, thirst for knowledge and learning are the traits of this scientist-turned-Chancellor of Germany.

I was the only Indian in the 30-member team of the crème de la crème of German industry accompanying the Chancellor. By end of this trip, I found it easier to list what Merkel wasn’t. She isn’t prone to flare-ups of grouchiness or whimsicality; she’s neither self-engrossed nor supercilious; she isn’t a bully and she isn’t grumpy. With Merkel, what you see is what you get.

She meticulously collects facts before taking any decisions. She sends a clear indication that she duty-bound in a serving role. Restraint, promptness, punctuality and hard work are guiding principles in her working life.

She was elected Chancellor twice, and in just a few months, she will have survived two legislative periods. The election to the 18th German Bundestag will be held on September 22, and all eyes in Europe are on Germany.

The Prognosis

According to opinion polls, the conservatives have a good chance of emerging as the strongest faction in the German parliament, the Bundestag, but they need a coalition partner to govern again. And, there doesn't appear to be one.

Merkel’s esteem, popularity and reputation are as high as ever -- regardless of all the undesirable headwinds and in spite of a cantankerous coalition.

So come September 2013, Merkel could still find herself in government once again, with this tetchy lot of Social Democrats in a “grand coalition”. She is the people's chancellor because the polls regularly put her personal popularity above that of her party.

Her self-effacing, unpretentious lifestyle -- she lives in a small Berlin apartment, rides to work in the Berlin public transport, shops at a popular German discount store and cooks for herself -- make her the ordinary, down-to-earth people’s chancellor.

Most Popular Country

In a survey carried out by BBC just a few weeks ago, Europe's largest economy, Germany, which has been criticised for ‘doing too much’ to help struggling Euro Zone countries, has topped as the world’s most popular country. The United Kingdom climbed to third position. And as for China and India, the ratings fell sharply to the ninth and twelfth positions, respectively. As the world's fourth-largest national economy, Germany has the lowest unemployment in the Euro zone combined with a sizable trade surplus and an enviable standard of living --- all in the middle of an ongoing global and Euro Zone economic crisis. If Merkel wins the September 2013 elections, she will become Germany’s second-longest-serving post-War Chancellor after Helmut Kohl – and be heading towards becoming Europe’s longest-serving female head of government, obscuring Margaret Thatcher. Undeniably, Angela Merkel is Nuestra Senora de Europa --- our lady of Europe.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany.)

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