Courtesy of Mish.
German chancellor Angela Merkel announced today she would Seek Fourth Term as Germany’s Leader.
In cheerleading fashion, the Financial Times offered this subtitle: “Trump victory underscores chancellor’s importance to world liberal order”.
The world will be better off if she loses, but here’s the announcement.
Angela Merkel has decided to seek a fourth term as German chancellor, less than two weeks after Donald Trump’s election in the US left her as the west’s pre-eminent defender of liberal values.
The announcement to stand again came days after meetings with world leaders that underscored Ms Merkel’s importance to an international liberal order rocked by Mr Trump’s electoral victory, and the rise of populist and nationalist parties across Europe.
She announced her decision to seek re-election on Sunday night, ending months of speculation. She said she had “thought endlessly” about whether to run again and described the decision as “anything but trivial, not for the country, for the party and for me personally”.
Ms Merkel said she wanted to serve Germany in “these difficult and uncertain times”.
Ms Merkel’s decision comes as the French on Sunday went to the polls to select a centre-right candidate for next year’s election. Pollsters expect the winner to face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the battle for the presidency.
“Germany and Europe need a safe pair of hands, they need predictability in policymaking, coherence and stability,” said Norbert Röttgen, the CDU head of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs committee. “It’s our responsibility to be this anchor of stability in the world.”
In the eyes of many AfD supporters, Ms Merkel symbolises a remote political establishment that has grown out of touch with the concerns of ordinary voters disillusioned by globalisation, free trade and open borders.
The AFD is now Germany’s third most popular party, according to Emnid, with 13 per cent of the vote. This compares with 33 per cent for the CDU/CSU — down considerably on the 41 per cent they scored in the 2013 election — and 24 per cent for the Social Democrats, junior partner in Ms Merkel’s governing coalition.
“The Bundestag election is open,” said Thomas Oppermann, head of the SPD group in parliament. “Angela Merkel is no longer unbeatable.”
To Hell With Principles
During its meeting on Sunday, the CDU also began drawing up an election platform for next year’s campaign which is in part designed to stop the haemorrhaging of support to the AFD. The party will, for example, rule out a repeat of last year’s refugee influx and say that it will pursue sanctions against migrants who refuse to integrate into German society.
Merkel still has not admitted a refugee policy mistake. In fact, she stated if she could go back in time she would go back far enough to plan for the refugees.
Now, her party hopes to get away with distortions and lies about Merkel’s true colors by saying things AfD wants to hear.
This is what Hillary did in an attempt to pick up Bernie Sanders votes. Hillary also bent her stance on trade and tariffs so that it was indistinguishable from Trump. Then despite all of media rallying around Hillary, she lost anyway.
