Duel for the next German chancellor

Naše Hanka Burešová se ve svém nejnovějším blogu věnuje nadcházejícímu politickému utkání Angely Merkelové a Martina Schulze ve světle německých parlamentních voleb.

As of this February, Germany has a new president: centre-left Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the former Foreign Minister. However, the world has its eyes firmly set on a much more important election this fall, the one for the German chancellor, where Angela Merkel will run for a fourth consecutive term.

The role of the German president would be described as more ceremonial than the Chancellor’s, as the president has the power to appoint and dismiss the Chancellor and Federal Ministers as well as the authority to dissolve the Bundestag. The Chancellor, on the other hand, presides over the destiny of the country, especially in regards to orientation of German foreign and European policy. Angela Merkel assumed this office in 2005 and has established herself as the leading figure in European and global politics, and as a model of longevity compared to an overwhelming majority of European politicians.

Merkel is in many ways controversial – not necessarily because of the radical nature of her policies, but rather because she tends to occupy the centrist point of view in many discussions, and due to her often cautious approach to decision-making. At the point where the winds of aggressive nationalism and hard-line right-wing approaches have taken over many important countries (Trump, Le Pen, May…), Merkel remains one of the last influential liberal politicians on the global political stage.

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