On her farewell visit to the USA, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a clear commitment to the transatlantic partnership. “We are not just allies and partners, we are nations that are close friends,” said Merkel after a detailed conversation with US President Joe Biden. The latter, in turn, presented the cooperation as having no alternative and thanked Merkel for her “strong leadership role” in her term of office, which was soon to end.
For the first time, the Chancellor also gave an insight into her future plans: After the end of her 16-year term in office, she wants to take a break, as she said after receiving an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.
The CDU politician said that she would “not accept the next invitation” because she was afraid that she would have nothing to do and that she would no longer be wanted. Instead, she wanted to think about “what actually interests me”. In the past 16 years she has had little time for this. “And then maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will close because I’m tired, then I’ll sleep a little, and then we’ll see.”
Merkel also made it clear that she would not miss having to constantly make decisions. It is true that she would probably have a lot of thoughts out of habit about what she should do now. But “then it will quickly occur to me that someone else will do it now. And I think I will like that very much.”
Merkel has been Federal Chancellor since 2005, but will not run again in the federal elections on September 26th.
