Chancellor Angela Merkel’s New Year speeches have typically been aspirational exercises in setting the political agenda, touching on dozens of broad themes such as immigration and climate change, and sometimes presenting her most recent projects to Germany.
But Merkel’s speech this year, her 16th as chancellor, is noticeably different. For what is almost certain to be her last speech on New Year’s Eve as the government leader, since she is due to step down in 2021, she focuses on a single topic: the coronavirus.
“The coronavirus pandemic was and is a political, social and economic challenge that occurs once in the century,” said Merkel in the annual pre-recorded television speech that is watched by millions of German households.
The pandemic killed more than 33,000 people in Germany and made hundreds of thousands sick. And even though generous government subsidies have avoided much of the widespread economic pain that other countries have experienced, long-term economic consequences are mounting for the nation.
As the speech makes clear, the pandemic affected Merkel’s last full year in office, disrupting a period in which she hoped to consolidate her leadership legacy on issues such as climate change, digital transformation and a robust social state.
Abroad, Merkel hoped to focus on dealing with issues like refugees and European Union unity as Brexit unfolded and countries like Hungary and Poland tested the bloc’s liberal values. Instead, she spent much of her time during Germany’s six-month term in the rotating presidency of the European Council traveling to Brussels for meetings to persuade EU members to violate budget rules and create a fund to contain the economic effects of the pandemic.
“I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that in the past 15 years have we never all experienced such a difficult year – and we never greet the new year with such hope, despite all our concerns and some skepticism,” she says.
As she notes in the speech, Merkel will not run in the next election, scheduled for September. In just a few weeks, those in your party who hope to succeed you – a powerful state governor, a former political competitor and a senior legislator – will compete for your party’s leadership.
But the winner of this contest faces a difficult path for the chancellery. None of them are adored like Merkel, who after a decade and a half in office and, especially after dealing with the pandemic, remains Germany’s most popular policy.
Outside of politics, the country’s liberal consensus also seemed increasingly in jeopardy, as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest Covid-19 regulations because they did not believe the coronavirus was real or thought the government should not. impose measures to prevent it.
“I can only imagine how painful it must be for those who are mourning loved ones lost to the coronavirus or are struggling with the persistent effects of this disease, to see obstinate deniers vying for the existence of the virus,” said Merkel, dubbing conspiracy theories about the “cynical and cruel” virus.
The protests found resonance on the far right of the country. A planned meeting of protesters who opposed Covid-19 restrictions in Berlin on Thursday was banned by officials, who feared the event would lead to new infections.
In Germany, the tradition of an annual speech by the country’s leader dates back at least to the turn of the last century, when Kaiser Guilherme II gave speeches from a balcony in Berlin. The practice continued during the Weimar Republic (when it was first broadcast) and the Third Reich. In recent decades, the tradition has been for the country’s president to give a speech at Christmas and the chancellor on New Year’s Eve.
Even as Ms. Merkel speaks of the hope that came with the coronavirus vaccinations that started in Germany on Sunday, she acknowledges that the situation remains dire. “This is a harsh winter and it is far from over,” she says.
Health officials in Germany are recording record infections, despite a block of weeks, and on Tuesday reported 1,129 deaths from Covid-19 in a single day, a record.
Merkel’s broadcast is likely to be seen by more Germans than the more than three million viewers who watched it last year, because – for the first time since television broadcasts began in the 1950s – it doesn’t have to compete with the weather normally turbulent country New Year’s Eve traditions. Fireworks have been banned across the country and many places have curfews. As in other cities, a growing police force in Berlin was sent to patrol the streets to interrupt any meetings.
Merkel’s last speech on New Year’s Eve also came after a year during which the generally taciturn chancellor was forced to address the Germans directly on several occasions, usually in an effort to gain acceptance for the new coronavirus rules.
Video clips of her explaining scientific details upside down went viral as the Germans looked at her calm and thoughtful leadership during the crisis.