Merkel – the sad end

I used to like German chancellor Merkel, who is privately modest – nowadays hard to find amongst the world’s senior politicians. I also felt that I could support her basic values, which took the conservative CDU left of where it used to be. I also liked the way she handled the Corona crisis in the beginning, taking professional advice to guide her in leading Germany’s policy.

 

Merkel has to work within the limitations of the country’s federal structure (imposed on it by the Allies, to prevent a strong centrally run Germany). Sixteen federal states, each with its own ego-driven prime-minister, have made Merkel’s Corona job almost impossible.

 

Having understood the severity of the Corona problem at an early stage, Merkel should have demanded federal jurisdiction in Corona matters. Instead, she left logistics, tracking and tracing, testing and vaccinating to the sixteen states. And the chaos is great. She then left the all-important procurement of vaccines to an impotent and inexperienced EU apparatus. The result is that Europe’s richest country is vaccinating like a third-world country: It has neither enough vaccine, nor has it built the logistics for vaccinating its population.

 

After 15 years as chancellor, Merkel is doubtlessly tired, and it shows. Sadly, she is now a lame duck, at the very time when one needs an empowered and powerful head of the executive.

EU Incompetence leading to further breakup?

Two strong women, Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen, in their wish to strengthen the European Union and establish it as a successful and robust All-European body, have achieved the exact opposite.

 

Merkel wanted the procurement of Covid vaccine to be a European project. However, neither von der Leyen, who was preoccupied with Brexit throughout the year, nor anyone else in the gigantic EU bureaucracy has any experience whatsoever in large-scale procurement. Invariable, they were just chickenfeed for the tough negotiators of the Pharma industry. Moreover, the 27 countries were not in agreement as regards to the different vaccines, price, technology and liability, thereby slowing negotiations down. The result is FAILURE.  Big time failure. Death causing failure.

 

Merkel should not have pushed for it and von der Leyen should not have accepted it. Lessons must be learned.  Before it is too late. Otherwise, Britain will not be the last country to leave the EU.

Merkel Failing ?

In the first few months of the pandemic, I could not but praise Mrs. Merkel’s handling of this emergency. I compared Merkel with the leaders of three other countries relevant to my life Israel, Britain and the UK. Merkel seemed competent, matter-of-fact, and honest.

 

Mid December it started to become clear that the minister in charge of Germany’s health system is incompetent. On 23 December, I suggested he be fired. Since then, the shocking vaccination failure is becoming more evident every day. 

 

Mrs. Merkel and her health minister, Jens Spahn have failed to ensure a good supply of vaccine and to prepare the logistics for vaccinating the population. Much has been made, over the years, of the fact that Mrs. Merkel was educated as a scientist and that as a result her approach to problems is scientific. Well, here she failed to grasp the critical importance of ensuring that her population gets vaccinated as soon as possible.

 

This week, Israel has started vaccinating the 35-year-olds, the UK will have vaccinated the over 70-year-olds by mid-February. Even in the USA, friends of mine are now being vaccinated. Here, in Germany, it is hoped that by the end of March, 80 percent of the over 80-year-olds will have been vaccinated.

 

Sadly, as far as vaccinations go – Germany is a failed state.

Mrs. Merkel: Please ACT.

Merkel’s fault I?

Germany, one of the richest countries in the world has failed to establish an efficient Covid vaccination operation. They had quite a few months to prepare and what we have is chaos. German news channels report about Israel’s efficient vaccination with envy. Germany’s federal health minister, Jens Spahn, should go. But does the buck stop with him? What about Mrs. Merkel’s responsibility?

 

Let me start by stating that I am a fan of Mrs. Merkel and have been one for many years. Indeed, right from the start, I congratulated Angela Merkel for the way she approached the Corona crisis. Merkel continues to be a one of the few non-populist leaders around. Tragically, – and yes, tragically is the fitting word – it did not take long for macho and ego-driven heads of federal states in Germany to assert their constitutional right and claim their sovereignty. They frustrated Merkel’s attempts to keep infection numbers low. This is a price the country has to pay for its democratic structures.

 

Now that we have reached the vaccination stage, a further problem has come to light: Germany’s astonishingly backward public health system. They have many wonderful hospitals, but the public health authorities are appallingly weak. Those in the know are of the opinion that they are – not surprisingly – staffed by the less competent of the medical profession. Moreover, there is almost no digitalisation to speak of. The federal government will have been aware of this weakness. It should have known that their system was incapable of efficiently handling the current emergency. An effective health minister would have established a parallel system to handle the logistics of vaccinating Germany’s population. Jens Spahn should have handled it as a military operation. Money was no object anyway. Moreover, with so many underemployed because of Covid, manpower would also have been available for the project. He didn’t. And Merkel failed to ensure that this important back to normality step was in competent hands.

 

This is, in fact, not the first time for an issue of central importance to be badly handled because of this weakness of Mrs. Merkel. In 2015, she took an emotional and ethical decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees. The decision, which she explained with her “We’ll manage” message to the German people, at first, enjoyed much public support. What Merkel failed to do was to have the hundreds of thousands of incoming migrants systematically registered upon entry. Merkel’s Minister of the Interior or someone else at her side should have ensured that everyone coming in is duly and recognisably documented. This did not happen. This caused fear of “losing control” over the country’s borders, a fear that was instrumentalised by the far-right. Much of the strengthening of the xenophobic, extremist right-wing AfD in Germany is due to this operational management failure of Merkel’s.

 

It is evident is that Merkel’s scientific brilliance and political acumen do not automatically make her a good manager. Unfortunately, there is nobody at her side to balance this shortcoming of hers. The fact that neighbouring Holland and France are even worse in their handling of the vaccination programme is no solace.

Merkel’s fault II?

Angela Merkel decided to subordinate Germany’s acquisition of Corona vaccines to the EU. There was no statutory or legal requirement to do so. After all, EU members buy neither butter nor guns through Brussels, so why should they buy their vaccines via the EU. This was a political decision that was meant to strengthen the notion of cohesion. A joint effort towards a joint success, an EU “we dunnit” effect was hoped for.

 

Will it deliver the hoped-for European moment?  Not at all certain.  Brussels is not very transparent as to how and why vaccine purchase contracts were agreed.

 

According to media reports by the end of January, Israel will have received more of the MADE-in-GERMANY  Biontech-Pfizer vaccine than Germany itself.  

 

How will Germans react if it turns out that the decision to order less of the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine and instead order more of the cheaper Astra-Zeneca, was made under pressure of some (East-European member) countries?

 

Merkel’s decision to subordinate the vaccination programme to Brussels might achieve the very opposite of what she was hoping for: it could actually strengthen the anti-European extremists.  

Hopefully the German Jewish community...

Here’s a link to an article of mine that was published yesterday by the Israeli daily Haaretz. The article asks but also answers the question « Do Jews have a future in Germany? And if so, what kind of future? «