Like a rock star, Angela Merkel is about to leave the stage to applause and tributes. The German Chancellor is living her 107th and a priori last European summit in Brussels this weekend, after 16 years in power. Many political personalities took the opportunity to slip a word about her: “monument”, “compass for the European project” or “immense politician”.
The summits of the Twenty-Seven “without Angela it’s like Rome without the Vatican or Paris without the Eiffel Tower”, declared the President of the European Council Charles Michel, underlining the emotion which his departure aroused among the European leaders. The speech was greeted with a standing ovation from the heads of state and government gathered since Thursday. A gift, a work in transparency by the young Franco-Dutch designer Maxim Duterre, evoking the Council building that hosts the summits, was given to him, as to his Swedish counterpart Stefan Löfven, also on departure.
With the end of his mandate, “Muti”, for both Germans and Europeans, “will leave a great void, because he is someone who has been in office for so long and who has had such a great influence on the evolution of the European Union ”, testifies Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda expressed “his enormous respect” for a woman who has been “a crucial stabilizing factor in very complicated situations”.
The fear of emptiness
A “compromise machine” for Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Merkel still held the line of dialogue with Warsaw in this summit, while tensions are high between Poland and the European Union. The call for a common response at European level has been a great constant in the mandate of the Chancellor of the CDU, hailed for her management of the migration crisis of 2015.
His departure arouses fear of emptiness within the EU, faced with decisive projects for its survival: post-Covid economic reconstruction, climate change, or even the affirmation of its geopolitical role vis-à-vis the United States and China. His replacement should be in place before Christmas. Social Democrats, environmentalists and liberals have started negotiations to form a coalition government with Olaf Scholz (SPD) at its head. But nothing will replace the experience of “Muti”.