Merkel highlights difficult national and international year in her New Year message

In her traditional New Year’s address, Germany’s chancellor first directs her words at the people in her own country: “Dear fellow citizens.” Yet these words should also be listened to attentively beyond Germany’s borders. When Angela Merkel takes stock of what she sees as an “extremely difficult political year,” she does so from two perspectives: national and international.

The chancellor begins her speech with an inward look at the long and difficult process of forming a government after the 2017 federal elections. The process lasted six months “and once we had it, there was a lot of quarrelling and preoccupation with ourselves.”

But Merkel does not want the tense climate within the coalition to be understood as the reason for her intention to step down as chancellor at the end of this legislative period in 2021. She says she would have done so “regardless of how unsatisfactory the past year was.” Her long tenure in office, which has lasted 13 years, is “reason enough.” We build on “what our predecessors have left us” and shape the present for those who come after us. “Democracy,” she says, “thrives on change.” 

Merkel is convinced that the challenges of the time can be mastered “if we stick together and work with others across borders.” These challenges include not only the “fateful question of climate change,” but also migration and the fight against international terrorism. “We want to solve all of these questions because it is in our interest.”