Publication
[MIDAS] A 16-year retrospective of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel

In March, Dr. Bernhard Seliger, representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation's Korean office, published a periodical - "A 16-year retrospective of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel" in MIDAS Magazine.

In this article, Dr. Seliger briefly explains the current situation of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany’s rapidly falling approval rating. Also, he explains in detail Merkel's childhood and the starting point of her political activities and furthermore, the process of eventually reaching the position of the prime minister.

Dr. Seliger says that the party's achievements in refugee issues, financial crisis, and COVID-19 earned itself a lot of public support, but these measures were temporary and did not actually help solve fundamental problems. Therefore, he stresses that it was a predictable result that the Liberal Democratic Party suffered a bitter defeat in the general election at the time of Merkel's retirement.

In the third part, he intensively describes the "social market economy", saying that German companies are greatly dampened by the federal government's policies and that the "social market economy" is showing a low presence. Therefore, rapid renovation of the party is urgent.

Germany has only been under a new government for two months now, but public opinion polls have already shown that people want Merkel to take over the position of prime minister again. Since Merkel has already retired, there is no possibility at all, but Dr. Seliger is not sure at the moment whether the current German federal government will be able to perform its duties well over the next four years.

Dr. Bernhard Seliger, the head of the Hanns Seidel Foundation's Korean office (HSF), will publish a monthly article in Midas magazine for a year.  For more information, please visit the Midas magazine website.

The full text of the article can be found here.