Germany, not to mention the European Union as a whole, has been hit by a double whammy over the past year. First there was Brexit and then the emergence of Donald Trump, two events which were neither expected to happen and have sent shock waves through Europe, shaking the very foundations of the union which, and let’s be honest, exist in Merkel’s Germany.
And Merkel now has at least two fronts to fight as federal elections loom. Yesterday, she suggested that the euro was too low for Germany but made it clear that Berlin had no power to address this "problem" because monetary policy was set by the independent European Central Bank. Was that an admission that even she has some reservations about how the EU is run?
On the other hand, the rise of Trump has given her main political rival, Martin Schulz, a boost. According to yesterday’s Washington Post, Germany is suffering "the kind of Trump bump perhaps never foreseen by his (Schulz) supporters - a boost not for the German nationalists viewed as Trump’s natural allies but for his fiercest critics in the centre left."
In a country that stands as a painful example of the disastrous effects of radical nationalism, Schulz is building a campaign in part around bold attacks on Trump and it appears to be working as he gains momentum by leading the anti-Trump movement in Germany.
And while all this is going on in Germany, which is also concerned about trade tariffs on German products exported to the States, the anti-EU sentiments in a number of other EU member states rumble on with an increasing lack of faith in the EU growing in France, Holland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and even Greece. Merkel must be desperate not to lose her crown.