A World Without Merkel

Angela Merkel used to tell Germans “we can do it” when addressing the question of integrating the million-plus refugees who have come to Germany since 2015. That pragmatic attitude and her liberal approach have—after the election of Donald Trump and his “America First” agenda—spurred many politicians and pundits to hail Germany’s motherly chancellor as the de facto leader of the free world. But after a narrow election victory in September and the collapse of coalition talks on Nov. 19, it’s beginning to look as if she may not be able to “do it” after all.

First elected chancellor in 2005, Merkel has been a stable presence on the global stage for so long that it’s hard to imagine Germany, or Europe, without her. Following September’s election, in which her conservative bloc of Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union lost 65 seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, she has struggled to assemble the jigsaw of smaller parties needed to form a majority government, proving that, for all its economic strength, Germany is vulnerable to the same forces of populism and political fragmentation that have swept other democracies in recent years.