THE CHESHIRE CAT: ANGELA MERKEL'S SMILE AFTER MERKEL’S ERA (AN ESSAY ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LACK OF STRATEGY)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58894/EJPP.2024.4.531
strategic mistakes Merkel Germany EU

Abstract

It is argued that the Merkel era continues to shape the main policies in Germany and the EU after Merkel's rule, causing the problems of modern time as a result of the strategic mistakes made. It is proven that the Chancellor was not a strategist, but a situational tactical bureaucrat. This means that she has simply managed a chain of successive crises without managing to make wide-ranging reforms to prepare her country and the EU for the future. Thus, some decisions turn out to be mistakes that, due to their strategic nature, cannot be corrected: the “Stockholm Syndrome”-style policy towards Putin's Russia, the policy resulting from the “GDR” syndrome of uncontrolled opening of the borders to economic migrants, the policy dictated by the power syndrome to neutralize the “Green” opposition, which led to the destruction of German nuclear energy, etc. Assumptions are made about how Merkel's policies will affect the development of European policies in the near future. The problems in the EU affect Bulgaria, however there are no historical reasons for them to affect its European orientation.