Merkel Seems Unperturbed For Fourth Term In Contrast To Recent Dramatic Elections

In sharp contrast to recent elections for head of states in the U.S., The Netherlands, France and Britain, the upcoming German election seems visibly unperturbed, with Chancellor Angela Merkel expected to coast along to a fourth term.

One flyer for Merkel’s center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), depicts a young woman enjoying the European summer lying in the grass. “Enjoy the summer now and make the right choice in the autumn,” it says, the Washington Post reported.

The federal election scheduled for Sept. 24 is taking place in circumstances different from those six months ago, when the surge of the far-right in Europe had threatened her popularity based on her immigration policies, the New York Times reported.

The ever-calm chancellor, however, seemed to have weathered the storm and brushed off the threat. Last week her calmness and confidence was on display at an election rally when two tomatoes were thrown at her during her speech; one missed her and the other barely grazed her. She simply brushed off the incident and continued, and was seen in the same red outfit a few hours later at another rally, the Financial Times reported.

She leads her challenger Martin Schulz of the Social Democrats by 16 points, the Financial Tribune reported, and most voters feel that she has already won, and election analyses have mostly focused on the kind of coalition that would shape the government after the election.

“The Germans see an uncertain world and don’t want to change their captain in a storm,” Helmut Jung, a consultant at the GMS polling agency, said.

While Olaf Boehnke, a senior adviser in Berlin with Rasmussen Global, a political think tank based in Brussels, said, “Merkel is still able to give people this feeling that she’s the nation’s mother and you don’t have to be afraid of things as long as she’s in charge.”

The CDU expects to get about 40 percent of the vote and lead the coalition. The last 12 years under Merkel have been marked by prosperity for Germany as it solidified itself as the economic powerhouse, and in many ways the backbone of the continent.

“We Germans have enjoyed the advantages of globalization,” Merkel said during the first and only televised debate with Schulz, “but we can’t be disconnected from the conflicts we see around us. We have to respond, which doesn’t mean that all people can come here, but we have to do more against the causes of these problems.”

Over the years she has weathered the global financial crisis, the Greece bailouts, the Ukraine conflict, the 2015-16 refugee crisis, among others.

At a ceremony in Dresden in October last year marking the anniversary of German reunification, she was disrupted with shouts of “Merkel must go” by right-wing demonstrators, the Financial Times reported.

“It’s great that Merkel always tries to remain matter of fact and to conceal her emotions on certain matters,” Hendrik Schwick, a student at the University of Potsdam near Berlin, said. “It’s not the worst thing that she’ll be chancellor again,” the Washington Times reported.

According to a report, while Donald Trump becoming president has caused her many headaches, it has also brought the unexpected benefit “of scaring Germans into rallying around her.”

“We can send a thank you every month, every week, every day to Washington,” a report quoted a CDU official as saying.