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| Customers sit inside maskless… |
Me? I don’t like “Mutti” Merkel one little bit. Two really major things she did that have damaged Germany and damaged the world. That’s putting aside all the major issues she just kicked down the road: German relations with China, a coherent energy policy, immigration. The two major blunders:
One: Opening the doors to uncounted illegal immigrants, in 2015, saying just “we can do it” (wir schaffen das). They numbered well over a million — no one knows exactly, an indictment in itself— mostly working-age young males, overwhelmingly Muslim, and virtually all (>80% by most polls) not refugees but economic migrants. It’s known from previous waves of immigration to Europe that immigrants from Islamic countries integrate least well of all sources. We know from this latest influx to Germany that crime rates amongst them are at levels that in any other context would be called “epidemic”.
Two: Closing down nuclear. In the wake of Fukushima, Merkel decreed that all remaining nuclear power stations in Germany would be closed down. Result: Germany has increasing carbon dioxide emissions because it has to use more coal fired power. And has the highest cost of electricity in Europe (perhaps the world; must check). Completely unnecessary. Completely knee-jerk. Completely stupid. ADDED: Catastrophically idiotic! I mean, why?? Because Greens? Look how they did in the election!
There’s plenty more. Less fan-struck Merkel-watchers call her “Merkiavelly”. She plays the game for herself:
Merkel is, above all, an opportunist. She is a politician who has moved with the times, who has ably outmanoeuvred her rivals in and outside her party. ‘Merkiavelli’ is how she was dubbed by the late sociologist Ulrich Beck. She is a political shapeshifter. On the economy, Merkel began her chancellorship as a fiscal hawk, keeping a tight grip on the budget strings for most of her time in office. She leaves office having authorised some of the most generous pandemic spending in the world. On cultural questions, she was at times a social conservative, opposing gay marriage, and other times a hyper-liberal, opening Germany’s borders to a million refugees. Merkel has no ideology beyond what works for Merkel.
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| …and customers put on masks to go outside |
