Yesterday, BBC Europe editor Katya Adler posted an insightful profile on Angela Merkel’s “mixed legacy” following her 16 years as German Chancellor. It was a compelling analysis: poring over the details of her domestic and European policymaking, ultimately concluding that there’s a “tale of two Merkels“. By sheer coincidence, Adler’s analysis bears a truly remarkable similarity to another profile on the German Chancellor that appeared in Foreign Policy magazine back in July.
Guido’s combed through both articles, and it’s surprising just how much everyone seems to agree. The ideas, themes, analyses and conclusions all align quite neatly. On Merkel’s legacy, Matthijs and Kelemen say she had a tendency to “procrastinate and dither”; Adler says she “waited till the last moment to act”. On the European economies, Matthijs and Kelemen point out that “Northern economies thrived [and] Southern economies entered deep recessions”; Adler notices the same thing. On Hungary’s Orban, Matthijs and Kelemen say Merkel “shielded him against EU censure”; Adler also notes “she repeatedly stopped short of taking decisive action”. The list goes on. At no point does Adler reference the Foreign Policy piece, despite repeatedly tackling the same points over and over again. Let he who hasn’t panicked close to a looming deadline cast the first stone…
Co-conspirators can draw their own conclusions from the extracts below:
