Merkel’s center-left rivals face pressure to name challenger

With Trump’s victory in the USA and the rise in support for right-wing parties in several European states, some commentators see Merkel as a bastion of Western liberal values.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has chosen to face perhaps the biggest test of her career: defending the European and transatlantic status quo amid huge uncertainty for both. The country and the CDU have given me a lot.

“I am just as much “the people” as others are “the people”, she insisted. Chances are, if she wins again, she’ll need another Grand Alliance to remain in office.

She cited the polarization of German society and security fears due to the refugee crisis as examples of important domestic challenges. Polls put her Christian Democrats (CDU/CSA) on around 33%, down some 10 percentage points from summer previous year.

NELSON: She says even readers of her left-leaning daily, Die Tageszeitung, have been sending emails and posting comments saying they can’t believe they’re happy to be living in a country ruled by a conservative like Angela Merkel.

Merkel on Sunday said she was flattered by those calling for her to assume the global mantle of liberal democracy following Obama’s departure. But the AfD’s rise makes coalition building more complicated and voters also risk becoming exhausted of her.

A physicist via training, Merkel got to be chancellor in 2005.

However, her decision to let in more than one million asylum seekers over the last two years dented her support.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed at a press conference here on Sunday that she is ready to run for the fourth term in office in 2017 election.

Merkel’s liberal refugee policy enabled the arrival of an unprecedented 890,000 migrants into Germany a year ago, prompting a backlash of criticism, particularly from the Christian Social Union – the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

It inflicted a humiliating defeat on Mrs Merkel’s conservatives during a recent regional election in her own constituency and it’s expected to win seats for the first time in the national government.

A scientist with a low-key manner, Ms. Merkel rejected the idea that, after the election of Donald J. Trump as president in the United States, she had a lone role in keeping Western liberalism alive.

Obama spent most of his time huddling with Merkel, his closest counterpart who is now Europe’s most powerful leader as the continent prepares for Trump’s presidency.

On Wednesday, in the eurozone IHS Markit will deliver preliminary, or “flash”, November purchasing mangers’ indices for Germany, France and the eurozone as a whole.

In France, polls predict nationalist presidential contender Marine Le Pen will easily enter the first round of elections in the spring of 2017. Italy is set to decide on December 4 whether to back its incumbent Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who in seeking power to make constitutional reforms has staked his leadership on a referendum. This leaves Germany as a reluctant hegemon at the centre of a fractured Europe into which Russian Federation is seeking to project its power.

Merkel’s plan to address the refugee crisis through closer cooperation between the European Union and Turkey has been successful, with Germany receiving less than 220,000 refugees through this October. There is some frustration here at the thought of four more years of Mrs Merkel.