It was billed as Germany’s answer to Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK — one hour with Angela Merkel answering direct questions in the Bundestag. PMQs addict Mark Hallam wasn’t captivated by the inaugural session.
Sixty minutes, 30 questions, 30 answers, and 30 reminders of what Germany already knew: Chancellor Angela Merkel is far better at coherently and cautiously answering tough political questions than she is at captivating an audience.
Live television coverage of the first-ever session of lawmakers posing direct questions to a sitting chancellor often caught the politicians and the viewers in the gallery looking at their smartphones or their feet even in the midst of hitherto unprecedented parliamentary cut and thrust.
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At no point did the chancellor really seem rattled or riled (except for one slightly terse exchange with an AfD politician about the ongoing asylum scandal), and nor did she take any opportunities to score any major points against rival politicians or parties. Instead, hands clasped firmly in a diamond around her midriff, Merkel proceeded to answer questions in an understated and non-committal manner. To the chancellor, it probably felt like an extended press conference akin to those she regularly faces with visiting world leaders, only with more familiar faces asking the questions.
A great many of the 30 questions would have served the purpose, but let’s take one on rapidly rising German rent prices, put to Merkel by a Left party politician, as an example: Merkel, with a minute on the clock as for all the other issues, began by saying how rent was an important issue for the coalition government. She then said it was important to build more houses, to do more to protect tenants, and to procure and secure more land for development. She concluded by saying the coalition would be working intensively on all these issues but that there was much still to do and many difficult challenges lying in wait.
It’s a cogent, concise, competent answer to an almost impossibly large question (especially for 60 seconds). But it’s hardly political theater.
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Longtime Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave Merkel her first cabinet post and facilitated her rise. After losing the chancellorship in 1998, his onetime acolyte turned her back and that of their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on him. Merkel, then CDU secretary general, said Kohl, who had accepted a cash donation from sources he refused to reveal, had hurt the party. The CDU moved on without him.
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Questions too big, answers impossible
Perhaps, in hindsight, it was unfortunate that this inaugural event took place right before a G7 summit. The first half was dedicated to G7-related issues, making the topics enormous and unwieldy.
Merkel was asked whether Russia or Trump’s US were reliable partners, whether she should take a tougher line on China, or the climate, whether it was a mistake to eject Russia from the then-G8 after it annexed Crimea. It became a whistle-stop tour of German foreign policy, in which Merkel preached moderation in almost all things.
For more read the full of article at The Dw
