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Merkel bids farewall to Facebook ahead of planned exit from politics

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Friday she would close her Facebook account, taking another step in a long farewell from politics in her final term in office.

Published: 1 February 2019 17:34 CET
Merkel bids farewall to Facebook ahead of planned exit from politics
Angela Merkel at the CDU conference in December, when she stepped down as party leader. Photo: DPA

In a short video, Merkel thanked her more than 2.5 million followers on the social media site and asked them to keep watching her work on her official government site and on Instagram.

Having run the biggest EU economy since 2005, Merkel last year stood down as party leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a post now held by her preferred successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

“Today is the day I would like to thank you for supporting my Facebook page in great numbers,” Merkel said. “You know I am no longer CDU leader, so I will now close my Facebook page.”

Although some observers have speculated Merkel may in future seek a senior UN or EU post, the 64-year-old has signalled she will not go for a new political job after her term ends in 2021.

SEE ALSO: End of an era: What  you need to know about Merkel's planned departure

Merkel has served a marathon stretch as chancellor but faced major domestic headwinds after her 2015 decision to keep open German borders to a mass influx of mostly Muslim refugees, many from war-torn Syria.

While many wished her well in the Facebook comments section Friday, others vented their anger by demanding she quickly bow out of the chancellery as well.

Merkel, who is not on Twitter, had only occasionally used the Facebook page.

In its “about” section, the site said Merkel enjoys the writings of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the music of Richard Wagner and the Beatles, the German crime TV show “Tatort” and the movie “Out Of Africa”.

While her listed hobbies are gardening, hiking and cooking, her personal “dream” may offer a clue to her retirement plans: “a trip with the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok”.

As her favourite quotation, Facebook lists a sentence from post-war CDU chancellor Konrad Adenauer: “Politics is not about just being right, but about being proven right in the end.”

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POLITICS

‘Dexit’ would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

According to the German Economic Institute (IW), Germany's exit from the EU – the so-called Dexit – would cost millions of jobs and significantly reduce the country's prosperity.

Published: 19 May 2024 18:04 CEST
'Dexit' would cost Germany 690 billion euros and millions of jobs: economists

In a study presented by the Cologne-based institute on Sunday, the authors showed that a Dexit would cause real GDP to drop by 5.6 percent after just five years. This means that Germany would lose 690 billion euros in value creation during this time.

In addition, Germany as an export nation is dependent on trade with other countries, especially with other EU countries, warned the authors. Companies and consumers in Germany would therefore feel the consequences “clearly” and around 2.5 million jobs would be lost.

The study is based on the consequences of Britain’s exit from the EU, such as the loss of trade agreements and European workers.

Taken together, the losses in economic output in Germany in the event of a Dexit would be similar to those seen during Covid-19 and the energy cost crisis in the period from 2020 to 2023, the authors warned.

Brexit is therefore “not an undertaking worth imitating,” warned IW managing director Hubertus Bardt. Rather, Brexit is a “warning for other member states not to carelessly abandon economic integration.”

Leader of the far-right AfD party Alice Weidel described Great Britain’s exit from the European Union at the beginning of the year as a “model for Germany.”

In an interview published in the Financial Times, Weidel outlined her party’s approach in the event her party came to power: First, the AfD would try to resolve its “democratic deficit” by reforming the EU. If this was not successful, a referendum would be called on whether Germany should remain in the EU.

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