“I TAKE a long time, and my decisions come late,” Angela Merkel said on November 20th, as she explained why she was only now confirming what most Germans had long assumed: that she would run for a fourth term as German chancellor in next autumn’s election for the Bundestag. Considered a shoo-in until the summer of 2015, she lost the support of many conservatives last autumn when she opened Germany’s borders to the refugees then streaming into Europe. Crucially, she also fell out with an important domestic ally, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria, who demands a fixed upper limit to asylum-seekers. But with the refugee crisis waning and her popularity rising again, Mrs Merkel in the end decided that she had no choice but to run again. She lacks an obvious successor in her conservative bloc, and she may be the only one able to protect her 11-year legacy of centrist politics during a time of populist insurgencies.
The election this month of Donald Trump as America’s next president may have tipped the balance in her decision. Suddenly, America’s future role as leader of the liberal post-war order is in doubt. Other Western powers are...Continue reading
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