A new chapter is opening in the political history of Germany: at Sunday's elections Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic SPD narrowly beat the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) of the outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel. The Green party arrived third, proving people, especially younger voters, are very interested in environmental issues.
As the CDU/SPD duopoly comes to an end, it becomes clear that Germany will be governed by a three-party coalition - either the green-yellow-red traffic light coalition, with the SPD, Greens and FDP (the Greens' Annalena Baerbock is willing to work with the SPD's Scholz), or the "Jamaican" coalition of the CDU/CSU, Greens and FDP.
While critics are analysing the victory and wondering if centre-left parties are recovering in Europe, and if Covid played a part in the voters' decisions, we do know that as a new era opens for Germany, another one finishes. For the time being, Angela Merkel remains caretaker leader, but sooner (or later, depending on the time it takes for the coalition to be formed) will disappear from the political scene.
A diplomatic quasi-presidential figure, Merkel managed to keep her party and the EU together in difficult moments, but she also made mistakes and filtered decisions through German lenses. Climate issues were neglected under her; refugees policies and a fairer asylum system didn't seem to be on her agenda (it took her until 2015 to admit that she hadn't realised how conflicts in Syria and Iraq may have affected Germany).
Last year she also reached a compromise with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's regime in Hungary and the illiberal Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland, while Germany's dependence on Chinese markets meant that the issue of human rights in China wasn't discussed. Yes, she remains uncorrupted compared to some politicians (Italy comes to mind...) and terrifically diplomatic even when former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called her "an unf*ckable lard-ass" in an interview with a newspaper editor in 2011, when former US President Donad Trump refused to shake her hand at a meeting in 2017 and when a year later Trump was pictured confronted by Merkel acting like a spoiled child having a terrible tantrum at the G-7 summit in Canada (View this photo).
Merkel symbolised her diplomacy and monolithic presence also through her looks. For 16 years she has indeed adopted a very basic uniform comprising a jacket with three or four buttons obviously done up, dark wide trousers and flat shoes. Fashion designer Bettina Schoenbach dressed Merkel since she won the 2005 election, creating a look that didn't attract the attention to clothes, reshifted the dynamics of discourse onto politics and symbolised a sort of sober, no-nonsense and maybe a bit cold political style.
There was only one thing - well, actually two things - that changed: the colour and the materials of her blazers. As the years passed and she took part in international meetings we saw Merkel in over 50 shades of wool, silk, shantung and velvet blazers, from bright orange to pastel pink, from soothing lavander to blood red. Neutrals - from white to beige - were favoured for meetings with business leaders. There was therefore a sort of intrinsic code behind the colours, just like there were symbols behind Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's brooches.
Merkel only opted for dresses when she went to the opera, even though she disliked the attention her low-cut taffeta dress for the opening of Oslo's Opera House in 2008 got her, and also made sure her necklaces weren't too ostentatious after a necklace in the colours of the German flag in a 2013 TV debate sparked a dispute about nationalism.
Merkel's jackets became so popular that a while back Dutch graphic designer Noortje van Eekelen created the "Pantone Merkel" (also known as the "many shades of Merkel" or "Merkel Rainbow"), basically 100 images of chancellor Angela Merkel in her trademark jackets arranged into a color chart and accompanied by dates and locations. Widely imitated through more Merkel rainbow pics that accompanied features about her published on prominent newspapers and websites, the Pantone Merkel was part of "The Spectacle of the Tragedy," a satirical project about the Eurozone crisis van Eekelen developed in 2012 for his Master of Design at the Sandberg Instituut, in Amsterdam.
It would be reductive to summarise 16 years of conservative-led government in Germany through the chancellor's blazers and maybe through her iconic pose with hands making a rhombus shape. At the end of the day, it is indeed the politics that count and not the clothes. Yet, fashion-wise Merkel's uniform entered history with her, representing a minimalist and sober moment of politics.
Guess we will miss her colour-coded messages, but let's hope that, as the Pantone Merkel fades away, the Green party (that managed to convince 250,000 previous non-voters to give it their votes) may spark in the near future a debate at government level about a more sustainable garment and textile industry in Germany and influence the rest of the EU as well.
Comments