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Sure, but Schröder was just a continuity conservative like Blair; pretending to be an SPD chancellor while doing very little until the CDU got in again (albeit mostly in Grand Coalitions). Hence the steady drift of German politics towards immoderation (similar, of course, to other countries like Britain and France). Merkel, unimaginative and managerial, only really did two things that broke the mould--the exit from nuclear power (I assume that she, as a physicist, was one of very few politicians who would have had a proper understanding of the issues) and the opening of the border to (mainly) Syrians after the Syrian catastrophe. I assume the latter was mainly determined by demographic considerations, although she has given other reasons. It's also a cornerstone of attempts to blame immigration for so many evils rather than attacking the actual perpetrators of the injustices of the last forty years.
Oliver Schick-
I think the exit from nuclear power was as a reaction to Fukushima and to take a topic away from the Greens, she also destroyed the German solar industry and made the country dependent on russian gas and coal power.
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Merkel, unimaginative and managerial, only really did two things that broke the mould--the exit from nuclear power (I assume that she, as a physicist, was one of very few politicians who would have had a proper understanding of the issues)
Yes, and she proved that she, like all politicians, are more than capable of going against what they know if it is politically advantageous.
sohi
Gewürzt
Oh definitely. It's like the bad parts of GDR society survived and at the same time it all got fucked by capitalism.
But there would have been the chance to do better after Kohl.