Germany wonders if Merkel will last as long as Gaddafi

When the smoke clears, the government of Angela Merkel in Berlin may topple like the structures of the desert tyrant. Criticism has been heaped upon criticism of her, her policies and her ministers, with most of the heat falling on one in particular – foreign secretary Guido Westerwelle.

Ms Merkel is continuing to support Mr Westerwelle while Germany’s media tears him to pieces for saying it was his country’s support for international sanctions against Libya that had been key in winning victory for the uprising.

The minister, who in April relinquished his job as leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), the junior partner in the coalition government, now faces renewed questions over his future.

“A minister on probation,” ran Monday’s headline in the conservative Die Welt newspaper.

“Who will go first?” asked the left-wing Tageszeitung with front-page pictures depicting, side by side, Mr Westerwelle and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Mr Westerwelle ate his words at the weekend and admitted, ultimately, that bombs and bullets and not blocked bank accounts had toppled Col Gaddafi.

“By finally recognising Nato’s leading role, Westerwelle has probably won himself some time at the foreign ministry, said the Leipziger Zeitung. “But his political end, according to leading figures in his party, is near.”

Criticism of Mr Westerwelle is nothing new; but scorn heaped on Angela Merkel by the man who made her certainly is.

Madam Chancellor is said to be shocked to the core by the attack on her foreign policy a week ago by former German leader and Cold War strongman Helmut Kohl.

Mr Kohl not only tore into Ms Merkel but into that whole, cosy, post-Second World War comfort zone that Germany has always retreated into whenever trouble lurked on the international stage.

Pacifism engendered by the loss of two world wars and the shame of the Holocaust has inculcated a sense of “never again” when it comes to military force, even if that puts Germany at odds with her allies.

Mr Kohl said it was time to rethink this not-so-splendid isolationism.

“Germany has not been a reliable power – neither in domestic policy nor in foreign policy,” he said in an essay.

“I wonder where Germany stands today and where it is heading.”

Mr Kohl, who originally plucked Ms Merkel out of obscurity to make her a cabinet minister in 1991, is said to be staggered by her lack of statesmanship.

The chancellor and her government were heavily criticised both at home and abroad when Germany abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote which authorised the imposition of a no-fly zone over the North African country.

This week former Green foreign minister Joschka Fischer weighed in with his own views. He said he was “pained” by Mr Westerwelle’s “lack of fundamental convictions”, adding; “We are being governed by those who have lost touch with reality and are denying what’s obvious to everyone else.

“He claims in all seriousness that his sanction policies were primarily responsible for doing away with the Gaddafi regime. Everyone knows that’s nonsense, and that absolutely no progress would have been made if Nato hadn’t intervened militarily.

“No, the behaviour of Germany’s government during the Libya conflict, its abstention in the UN Security Council was a one-of-a-kind debacle and perhaps the biggest foreign policy debacle since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. Our country’s standing in the world has been significantly damaged. And some of that also comes from Westerwelle’s recent justifications for his Libya policies.”

With opinion polls showing support for Ms Merkel and the FDP drastically low, both parties are braced for a hammering in upcoming regional elections. One wag joked on Bavarian Radio on Tuesday morning that Angela Merkel may soon be joining the family of Col Gaddafi in Algeria.