In the Weekend Review of last Saturday’s edition of The Irish Times Derek Scally wrote a review of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel.
It is a positive account of her 16 years as head of the German government and 31 years as a politician.
Scally says her maxim is simple: In calm lies power.
On one occasion she was asked what western Germans could learn from easterners like her, Merkel replied: ‘Patience’.
At her final summer press conference in Berlin last Thursday she said: “It’s up to others to draw a balance and they will do that.
“I’m at ease with myself, with my life and my biography. I think both gave me good opportunities to make a contribution to Germany’s political life."
In the Life&Arts supplement of the Guardian of the same date Guy Chazan reviews Robin Alexander’s book on Angela Merkel. He sees her in a different light as Derek Scally.
Alexander argues that there was never so much government in Germany and never so much government failure.
He says she is now seen around the world by many as “the tired regent of a risk-averse, overly bureaucratic and technologically backward Germany".
Whom to believe Scally or Chazan/Alexander?
Interesting how people’s opinions vary and how at all can the reader draw conclusions?
Maybe there never are conclusions.
1 comment:
Who to believe? The editor of Die Welt whose book is a massive bestseller in Germany or the banalities of that IT series? Such a tough call!
I just hope someone in our Government reads German and we get the message from Robin Alexander.
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