To prevent irritation, the Chancellor prepares the President Cyril Ramaphosa in front. Shortly before the joint press conference, she lets him know that she is before South Africa get rid of a domestic political message. Usually this is not appropriate as a state guest. So it is courteous that it is all about relations with the host country.
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But what happened there the day before in Erfurt is too dramatic, too difficult to follow Angela Merkel nearly 9000 kilometers to Pretoria. An FDP prime minister at the mercy of the AfD, the far right Höcke-AFD mind you, and the CDU participated.
So the Chancellor would like to make a “preliminary remark” even before she is asked anything.
Merkel then calls the “unforgivable” and “unique process” Breaking the taboo in Thuringia, A process “that broke with the basic beliefs for the CDU and also for me, namely that majorities should never be won with the help of the AfD”. The result, Merkel demands, must be reversed.
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Merkel doesn’t say exactly how she imagines that. She calls new elections “an option” in Pretoria, but indirectly joins these calls when she stresses that the CDU is not part of a government under the elected FDP prime minister Thomas Kemmerich may participate. She is thus on the line that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has specified as party leader: no cooperation with Kemmerich, no cooperation with the AfD.
It is above all Kramp-Karrenbauer who has to manage this crisis as Merkel’s successor in the CDU chairmanship. But the Chancellor’s remarks from afar show the full scope of the Thuringian quake, which once again shakes her coalition in Berlin. Merkel has spoken a lot on the phone in the past few hours, with the CDU chairman, with the SPD top duo Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, with Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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Social inequality and distribution struggles cause an enormous crime rate
The situation is serious, at the weekend the coalition leaders are to discuss how things can go on – in Thuringia and in the federal government. “It was a bad day for democracy,” said Merkel, “a day that broke with the values and beliefs of the CDU”. The South African delegation members and journalists present can be seen that they would like to know what exactly happened in Thuringia.
The forewarned Ramaphosa listens patiently and kindly to what Merkel has to say. Then it’s about his country again. His country and its problems, because they are so huge that the Thuringian turmoil seems almost moderate again.
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The economy is in crisis, unemployment is 30 percent and the youth rate is as high as 60 percent. Social inequality and distribution struggles create an explosive mixture, the crime rate is enormous, statistically 58 people are killed every day in South Africa. And the situation has not gotten better in recent years, but worse.
This also worries the Chancellor. She wants to support Ramaphosa, to appreciate his reform efforts, which are all the more difficult because the president has to constantly wear himself out in internal power struggles by the ANC, which has been ruling since the end of apartheid.
After all, South Africa is Germany’s most important partner on the African continent, economically and, after the Zuma presidency, which has been shaped by scandals, is gradually also becoming political again. The country belongs to the G20 club, currently sits together with Germany as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and will shortly take over the chairmanship of the African Union.
In this context, the Chancellor hopes that South Africa will be able to support her efforts to end the proxy war in Libya in the future.
Business with the Republic on the Cape is also going well. Around 600 German companies are active there, Germany is by far the most important economic partner for South Africa, after China and before the USA, the trade volume is 17 billion euros.
The importance of Ramaphosa to the German guest is shown in the visit program. He takes an unusually long amount of time for the Chancellor, the President hardly leaves her side more than seven hours this Thursday. Reception with military honors, talks, press conference, lunch together, a round of business representatives, and finally a visit to the BMW plant just outside Pretoria.
When in doubt, the jobs in the coal mines are more important to people than clean air
There, Merkel and Ramaphosa want to unveil an electric model in the afternoon – it should be a signal that South Africa is also serious about climate protection. But the reality is different. The country is the largest carbon dioxide emitter on the continent, and its energy supply is almost 90 percent dependent on coal. Even new coal-fired power plants sometimes run without modern filter systems. There is plenty of wind and sun, and they hardly play any role as energy sources.
Ramaphosa pledges to change that. However, the jobs in the coal mines are more important to people than clean air. She doesn’t need to talk to Ramaphosa about a coal exit, which Merkel is struggling to tie up at home.
And so she rather formulates a cautious offer: Germany could help South Africa, for example with the construction of small gas power plants or with the expansion of renewables. Ramaphosa is grateful, but admits that the energy transition in South Africa is not yet being tackled with great enthusiasm.
And then Merkel is punished again at the press conference in Ramaphosa’s seat of government about the situation in Thuringia. The answers are now becoming monosyllabic. Is she worried that the grand coalition could break up? Kramp-Karrenbauer and CSU boss Markus Söder had made a clear statement and “classified the whole process,” says Merkel. “I think that was very important for the coalition as a whole.”
How things will continue in Thuringia is still open. Only one thing is certain for the Chancellor in South Africa on this day: the topic will continue to accompany her on this trip, even if it goes to Angola on Friday.
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