The mess Merkel leaves behind
The successor to Germany’s much-admired chancellor will face big unresolved problems
ONLY OTTO VON BISMARCK and Helmut Kohl served longer as Germany’s chancellor than Angela Merkel has. Bismarck forged an empire, and invented Europe’s first public-pension and health-care systems along the way. Kohl oversaw the reunification of East and West Germany and agreed to the replacement of the beloved Deutschmark with the euro.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The mess Merkel leaves behind”
From the September 23rd 2021 edition
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