Merkel wins yet again

THE decidedly anti-charismatic Angela Merkel is an incongruity in this age of flamboyance and flippancy. That this dawdy, frumpish grandmotherly figure could command, for the fourth time, the respect and confidence of the world's most discerning electorate speaks volumes about the power of governance by competence and due diligence. Our age is deemed to belong to the angry and impatient voter, and,  yet Ms Merkel has been chosen for a fourth term as Chancellor in Germany; what all of this means is that all is not lost and that even though the demagogues all over the world appear to be able to run away with the rhetorical ball, wise and sensible citizens would, at the end of the day, prefer a calm and competent administrator rather than allow themselves to be beguiled by the political candidates, crafted and chiselled by advertisement gurus.

Elections to the Bundestag, German parliament, is a complicated process; the final composition is determined by a convoluted mathematical calculations in two stages. At first glance, it appears that the rightwing is the big winner. However, too much need not be made of the gains made by the rightwing nationalist party, the AfD. If the votes have moved away from the two centrist parties, CDU/CSU, to AfD, even more have moved away to the liberal Free Democats (FDP) who will now partner Ms Merkel in a new governing coalition in Berlin.  

Ms Markel’s victory will have repercussions way beyond Germany. Ms. Merkel had taken an unpopular but a morally robust stand in the immigrant debate. Her return to power will impart encouragement and validation to the European centrist forces. Only a few months ago the French electorate had, similarly, rebuffed the extreme rightwing. These two results, in Germany now and earlier in France, have restored the European political discourse to its centrist sentiments and sensibilities.  The rightwing demagogues all over the world like to trawl in the shallow waters of anxious nationalism; it is tempting to believe that the antics of President Donald Trump, the most successful practitioner of rightwing ugliness, have considerably de-weaned the citizens world over from the romance of uber-nationalism. Ms. Merkel's fourth term is an icing on the liberal cake.