The German chancellor has been a torch-bearer for civilised values. Liberal democracy needs more figures like her
Turning points in world affairs form flashbulb memories,vivid snapshots of the scene when we heard the news: declarations of war; assassinations; natural disasters. They form the album of shared memories that defines each generation.
On the November morning in 1990 when Margaret Thatcher resigned, I was at school. I can picture the very classroom. The teacher took the unprecedented step of wheeling in a TV so we could watch the Iron Lady’s momentous departure from Downing Street. I had no notion of what it was like to have a different prime minister. French friends say it was the same for them when François Mitterrand stood down in 1995, and after 14 years in the Elysée palace. It took a while to get used to hearing the words “monsieur le president” in reference to a different face.Merkel must have wondered what on soil had happened to Britain when a buffoon like Johnson became foreign secretary Related: Angela Merkel’s successor could be disagreeable news for a post-Brexit Europe | Alan Posener Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com