LONDON: Europe will not be the same in 2022 as it was in 2021. Angela Merkel, the continent's empress, stood down from her post as Germany's chancellor in December, as planned, after 16 years in office. Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost the national elections in September without her leadership. With Olaf Sholtz as her successor, a coalition government led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was formed.

Germany is Europe's economic powerhouse. Merkel, the first woman to hold the position of chancellor, governed with equanimity, efficiency, and fairness, which many of her detractors found difficult to comprehend.

Indeed, as the leader of a right-of-centre party, she made the unprecedented step of receiving 800,000 Syrian refugees. Her own party objected, but her compassion won out, and she was re-elected in 2017, albeit with a smaller margin.

The uncommon but not unprecedented event of a grand alliance of the left and right, with SPD sharing power with her, occurred in the final four years of her tenure as Prime Minister. Sholtz was, in fact, the finance minister in that administration. Merkel will keep an office in the German capital, Berlin, and may not retire completely. It's impossible to rule out a future as an ageing stateswoman.

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