The Perfect Role Model: Angela Merkel ...?

(source)

This whole debate started inside my head when I watched a BBC documentary named: The making of Angela Merkel with Andrew Marr. All of you have probably noticed, that in the newest German elections, she and her conservative party (the CDU) have once again earned the highest number of votes, hence Merkel will continue to be the most powerful woman of the world and German Chancellor for the third time in a row.

 

As my best friend posted the documentary on Facebook, I was sitting in the library, pretending to study and it was the perfect opportunity to indulge in procrastination. One statement made by the current German Minister of Labor and Social Affairs as well as CDU-colleague of Merkel; Ursula von der Leyen; got stuck in my head: " ... There was [always] a lot of mistrust that a woman really can't [... become] chancellor; the good part is that today young girls in Germany [... when asked if they want to become the chancellor one day] might answer 'why not?' because they have this good example" (starting at 56:05).

By putting gender issues and her conservative neo-liberal ideology aside for a minute, does Angela Merkel has the potential to become the leading role model to me and, maybe even teenage girls?

I divided my discussion  into four subsection to give you my most clear and neat opinion possible. I will not take into account her conservative ideology but her public image and her leadership style only.

1. What is a role model and who were my role models when I was 14 - 16? 

"[A role model is:] An individual who is looked up to and revered by someone else. A role model is someone who other individuals aspire to be like, either in the present or in the future. A role model may be someone who you know and interact with on a regular basis, or may be someone who you've never met, such as a celebrity. Common role models include well known actors, public figures such as police men or political officials, teachers or other educators, and parents or other family members." (The Business Dictionary)

Speaking purely for myself, I always had role models such as Harry Potter, Princess Mulan or a female version of Doctor Who but never did I even once thought about a politician as a role model. Sure I can understand why people would identify with leaders such as Gandhi, Koffi Annan or Nelson Mandela but contemporary European politicians .... meh! I never developed my own political conscience before I was 16-18 years old anyway. And why would teenage girls, even if they have a feminist side to them, identify with Mrs. Merkel?

2. Merkel's constructed leadership style: The 'caring' mother that manages the household


Don't worry, I will not start to bash Mrs. Merkel's outer appearance, the dress she wore the other night or trying to analyse what she had for dinner. Rather it is about her style of leadership. Here's what I observed so far:

Firstly, if you look at the election campaign in the recent 2013 election, a TV debate between her and her Social Democrats (SPD) counterpart, Peer Steinbrück, her final Statement with which she tried to convince voters was simply:

"Sie kennen mich!" (You [the German people] know me)

For those who observed the 2013 election campaigns, might have realized a hand-gesture also known as Merkel's Diamond.

"[...]like her nickname "Mutti" (Mummy), the hands have been turned to a strength. "In der Raute liegt die Kraft" ("The strength is in the diamond"), wrote Die Welt on Tuesday in a front-page commentary on the poster, remarking that the Merkel diamond needed no explanation and stood for both "the calm and power of a chancellor". An iconic symbol of power." - The Guardian

These are only two of the many rhetorical examples where she tries to imply trust by describing herself to be caring and truthful, a powerful mother figure that knows what is best for us, the children.

Secondly, the thing that I find most astonishing in Mrs. Merkel is her way to adapt as she did with the Fukushima Atomic crisis. Once the Tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011, she denounced German nuclear Energy. As an answer to the rapidly growing Green protests and maybe as a way to gather public support, it was indeed one of those rare and perfect windows of opportunity in politics. Some say it was a decision led by the event. Even if this is true, the move was completely against her parties conservative policy line and I thought it very ballsy of her to do it. Some might disagree with that, however, she has a PhD in physics after all, and I am sure that she understood the consequences of her decision. To me it showed that she has the guts not let herself be lead by party politics when necessary.

To conclude, in popular media and debates, she always tries to imply motherly trust to people but definitely has enough (will) power and or rhetorical finesse to get most of her views and proposals ratified.

3. Criticism on Merkel's public image.

It is inevitable that criticism of Merkel heavily depends on your own political ideology. Being a conservative neo-liberalist is not what I aspire to become but you may have different believes. As I already said, I want to focus on Mrs. Merkel's (constructed) leadership abilities alone. I have two important critic points in that regard.

1. She reacts reluctantly and slowly.
The documentary by the BBC posted above tells you about it as well as many other  newspaper articles and critics of Mrs. Merkel. She reacts slowly. She said herself that she always wants to consider all possible outcomes and include as many variables as possible to reach the most effective conclusion. This, of course, takes up time. Politics however, does not always give you time and decisions have to be taken quickly. The beginning of her Eurocrisis management showed the negative effects of this 'slowness' when her decisions were extremely reluctant, adding to a generally observed unwillingness to provide European leadership.

2. She likes to not comment on controversy issues
Just like her 'political father figuer' Helmut Kohl; Mrs. Merkel has the tendency to draw a veil of silence. She just does not comment and waits until an issue disappears and the press and public 'forget' it ever happened. This is actually a good strategy because you cannot worsen the situation by making clumsy or inadequate statements either. She bets on others making mistakes. Plus, by not engaging in discourse, you simultaneously do not give any significance to it as well. For example, when she decided not to talk about the newly arisen political party 'Alternative für Deutschland' (an conservative anti-Euro party) in her campaign speeches she also implied an unwillingness to up-value their importance in the first place (source). This behaviour is more evident in domestic German politics than on the international stage.

4. So is she a role model for little girls in Germany who are dreaming about becoming a power leading lady?


Let me be frank, I am sure that Mrs. Merkel will never be able to substitute famous, cheesy and plain idols like Justin Bieber or Kathy Perry, to whom many 14 year old girls look up to. However, she (not her party) is relatively popular for a German politician. When looking at her public image and the way she presents herself, I can understand why many Germans feel comfortable with her as a leader at this moment. She is confident, yes, but she also has a charisma that is defined less by her appearance and more by her rhetoric and style. This makes her appear to be more realistic. Aside from the fact that there was no strong charismatic alternative to vote for this year, she provides a feeling of security by presenting herself to be the mother of the nation, managing in compromise rather than leading on the basis of her conservative ideology.These attributes are, what I think,  Germans like about her. Although, her popularity has declined due to the heavily unpopular bail outs, imposed austerity and the generally slow Eurocrisis management, she was heavily attacked and criticized internationally by popular press or even compared to Hitler (A still sensitive issue that hurts the public).

Quote from a BBC Article:

An older man said he did not understand why Germany was blamed for trying to help: "It hurts, because we think we are giving money and we try to help. This is something we don't understand."

I don't want to imply that Mrs. Merkel does not have any ideology, rather that she tries to not purely justify her decisions by that. We have seen that she can turn around party politics and go against the conservative line in how she reacted to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. I come to the conclusion that, I am too, more comfortable with a leader that is driven not necessarily by a strict political ideology but by morals and a management charisma that at least tries to view problems from different ankles. At least in the times of the Eurocrisis it makes me wonder whether it is better to have a manager-like politician type than an ideologically driven leader? It seems, that I asked more questions than actually giving any answers. In conclusion, I can understand why Germans like Merkel at the moment, although she is not my role model.

If you want to study more about Mrs. Merkel's self-representation, experiences and opinions you should check out her online podcast. However, I do always encourage everyone to be extremely critical with this and to read other sources on the discussed topics.

Leave your comments and opinion in the comment section and/or follow me on Twitter!