Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

ANGELA MERKEL

Merkel pledges to ‘stand together’ with US after election

Germany will "stand together" with the United States to overcome global challenges from the coronavirus pandemic to global warming, Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Monday after Joe Biden was elected America's next president.

Published: 9 November 2020 11:01 CET
Merkel pledges to 'stand together' with US after election
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday gave a speech on US-German relations following the election of Democrat Joe Biden. Photo: DPA

Germany and the US share multiple common interests, Merkel said, adding that in dealing with international problems, “Germans and Europeans know that we must take on more responsibility in this partnership in the 21st century”.

In a statement that was markedly warm compared to her remarks four years ago when Donald Trump took the White House, Merkel underlined the “friendship of both countries that has stood the test of time”.

She pointed to the president-elect's “decades of experience in foreign policy” and recalls “good encounters and talks with him”.

READ ALSO: Germany-US friendship is 'irreplaceable': Merkel sends congratulations to Joe Biden

Merkel also said Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris – “as the first woman in this office and as a child of two immigrants” — was an “inspiration” for many.

Back in 2016, the veteran chancellor greeted Trump's victory with an extraordinary warning, implying that she would work with the US president only on the condition that he respect democratic values.

This time round, Merkel pledged to stand “side by side” with the US on “the difficult test of the corona pandemic… the fight against global warming and the fight against terrorism”, noting that Germany and the US share multiple common interests.

At the same time, while promising cooperation, Merkel said Europeans would also do more to pull their own weight.

She said: “America is and will remain our most important ally, but it expects us – rightly so – to make greater efforts of our own to ensure our security and stand up for our convictions in the world.”

READ ALSO: What could Joe Biden as US president mean for Germany?

Biden was elected president on Saturday following four days of counting the results in a close race. Sitting president Donald Trump does not want to recognise the results, and has vowed to contest them in a court. Merkel did not comment on this.

On Saturday the Chancellor already congratulated Biden and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris per Twitter, and said she is looking forward to upcoming cooperation between the two countries.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

Sleep, seaside, potato soup: What will Merkel do next?

 After 16 years in charge of Europe's biggest economy, the first thing Angela Merkel wants to do when she retires from politics is take "a little nap". But what about after that?

Published: 5 December 2021 17:31 CET
Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes and smiles at a 2018 press conference in Berlin.
Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes at a 2018 press conference in Berlin. Aside from plans to take "a little nap" after retiring this week, she hasn't given much away about what she might do next. Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

The veteran chancellor has been tight-lipped about what she will do after handing over the reins to her successor Olaf Scholz on December 8th.

During her four terms in office, 67-year-old Merkel was often described as the most powerful woman in the world — but she hinted recently that she will not miss being in charge.

“I will understand very quickly that all this is now someone else’s responsibility. And I think I’m going to like that situation a lot,” she said during a trip to Washington this summer.

Famous for her stamina and her ability to remain fresh after all-night meetings, Merkel once said she can store sleep like a camel stores water.

But when asked about her retirement in Washington, she replied: “Maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will start to close because I’m tired, so I’ll take a little nap, and then we’ll see where I show up.”

READ ALSO: ‘Eternal’ chancellor: Germany’s Merkel to hand over power
READ ALSO: The Merkel-Raute: How a hand gesture became a brand

‘See what happens’
First elected as an MP in 1990, just after German reunification, Merkel recently suggested she had never had time to stop and reflect on what else she might like to do.

“I have never had a normal working day and… I have naturally stopped asking myself what interests me most outside politics,” she told an audience during a joint interview with Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

“As I have reached the age of 67, I don’t have an infinite amount of time left. This means that I want to think carefully about what I want to do in the next phase of my life,” she said.

“Do I want to write, do I want to speak, do I want to go hiking, do I want to stay at home, do I want to see the world? I’ve decided to just do nothing to begin with and see what happens.”

Merkel’s predecessors have not stayed quiet for long. Helmut Schmidt, who left the chancellery in 1982, became co-editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and a popular commentator on political life.

Helmut Kohl set up his own consultancy firm and Gerhard Schroeder became a lobbyist, taking a controversial position as chairman of the board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

German writer David Safier has imagined a more eccentric future for Merkel, penning a crime novel called Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark  that sees her tempted out of retirement to investigate a mysterious murder.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel forms her trademark hand gesture, the so-called “Merkel-Raute” (known in English as the Merkel rhombus, Merkel diamond or Triangle of Power). (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)
 

Planting vegetables
Merkel may wish to spend more time with her husband Joachim Sauer in Hohenwalde, near Templin in the former East Germany where she grew up, and where she has a holiday home that she retreats to when she’s weary.

Among the leisure activities she may undertake there is vegetable, and especially, potato planting, something that she once told Bunte magazine in an interview in 2013 that she enjoyed doing.

She is also known to be a fan of the volcanic island of D’Ischia, especially the remote seaside village of Sant’Angelo.

Merkel was captured on a smartphone video this week browsing the footwear in a Berlin sportswear store, leading to speculation that she may be planning something active.

Or the former scientist could embark on a speaking tour of the countless universities from Seoul to Tel Aviv that have awarded her honorary doctorates.

Merkel is set to receive a monthly pension of around 15,000 euros ($16,900) in her retirement, according to a calculation by the German Taxpayers’ Association.

But she has never been one for lavish spending, living in a fourth-floor apartment in Berlin and often doing her own grocery shopping.

In 2014, she even took Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to her favourite supermarket in Berlin after a bilateral meeting.

So perhaps she will simply spend some quiet nights in sipping her beloved white wine and whipping up the dish she once declared as her favourite, a “really good potato soup”.

SHOW COMMENTS