Chancellor Angela Merkel's crisis management skills are touted as the key to her success.
Her careful and steady style has served her, Germany and the EU well through countless crises.
And it worked at the start of the Covid-19
pandemic too. Germany even played a major part in creating
the first market-ready Coronavirus vaccine. But the EU hasn’t rolled out that vaccine
as fast as many other places –
Most of this happened under Merkel’s watch
at the helm of the EU presidency. So have Angela Merkel’s legendary leadership
qualities finally found their match in the pandemic?
With just a few months to go as German chancellor, will Covid re-write her legacy as the ultimate
crisis manager? There's growing dissatisfaction with Germany's
vaccination rollout. Critics argue this comes from Merkel's failure
to think outside her long-established political box - when other leaders simply threw out
the rule book. When Merkel first addressed Germany over corona
in March 2020 – she promised her government would think on its feet.
A crucial instrument to fight the virus arrived much sooner - and closer to home - than anyone
had dared to hope: On 20 November 2020 the American-German company
PfizerBiontech delivered the first vaccine ready for large scale approval.
And Yet: Despite the fact that German scientists had developed the vaccine – and much of
it is produced in Europe – the EU fell painfully behind in getting it to their people.
Now there ARE reasons for that: The countries that pulled ahead used a number
of innovative tactics to get the vaccines as soon as possible:
They issued fast-track approvals which needed less scientific data than the EU insisted on
They relieved pharmaceutical companies of
liability Israel struck a deal offering patient data
for faster vaccine access US president at the time Donald Trump, signed
a presidential order effectively banning vaccine exports until all Americans get their jab.
Instead, EU countries agreed on a common approach to approving the vaccine, using the European
Medicines Agency. It's the European way, based on consensus.
The aim was to bundle buying power, but also to avoid countries going it alone. Thatcould
lead to a bidding war between richer and poorer countries.
Many feared such vaccine nationalism within the EU might tear the bloc apart.
While there was pressure to act faster, DW has learned that no one around the table in
Brussels suggested departing from the standard procedure.
Instead, Merkel – by then holding the EU presidency – stuck to the procedures.
In the meantime, Europe was bleeding income and jobs. A major injection of financial support
was needed. And so here, Merkel drastically changed course.
The joint announcement with Emmanuel Macron that governments wouldn’t have to pay back
some 500 BN in EU rescue funds, was hailed as a triumph of European solidarity.
But this was an economic sticking plaster. Vaccines remained the only real ticket out
of the crisis – and on that, the EU had dropped the ball.
Merkel's mighty leadership is rarely questioned,
her reputation as an invincible crisis buster is untouchable. But the pandemic is threatening all of that.
One year into the crisis, she admitted she'd
failed to meet German expectations of getting lots of vaccinations, if not first, at least fast.
Other countries like Israel and Britain had
simply improvised instead of following a fixed procedure. They got going with their vaccine
roll-outs – and they were leaping ahead. Germany’s leading opposition parliamentary
party was furious that the government had simply let Brussels take over:
Germany had successfully flattened the curve of the first wave of the pandemic with a partial
but disciplined lockdown in March 2020. The second lockdown came too late to take
the edge off the second wave - more people would die in a week than during the entire
first wave. Virus variants began to arrive from Britain,
South Africa and Brazil. They were often more transmissable than the original virus, making
a mockery of lockdown and hygiene measures.
Merkel remains under pressure to do something different – lockdown fatigue is growing
across the European Union. European politicians and diplomats have told
me that when Merkel walks into a room full of EU leaders in Brussels, all eyes turn on her.
Everybody, including those who disagree with her, want to know what she thinks
and what she’s going to do. The fear is now, that Merkel, Germany and
the EU may stick to the procedures on vaccine approval, purchasing and distribution. And
that in the face of a second vaccine challenge – this time against the new variants – this
may prove to be another mistake. "We cannot afford to run into these problems
a second time when we address the second vaccine challenge here, because that will not be the
only opportunity for us to come up with a vaccine. We have to use booster shots. We
will have new waves of vaccinations. We have to become much quicker in Europe than we are
currently. We have to get better." Angela Merkel's leadership reputation is built
on her ability to think things through to the end – and her insistence on doing so
before she decides what to do. Yet with the pandemic, other leaders took
risks, broke protocol and abandoned principles of solidarity.
Merkel suddenly seemed less strong and decisive, and more hesitant
and rule-bound. Just months before her departure as German
Chancellor – her legacy is strangely open.