The looming departure of Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving and most important leader, could complicate Biden’s efforts to renew multilateral relations with allies after their tensions with former President Trump, and to solidify the alliance as a bulwark against Russian and Chinese aggression. Merkel is expected to leave the chancellorship after German elections in September.
“She’s always infuriated her peers with her ambiguities, but in truth she was actually very predictable,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller, a Germany expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Merkel’s departure and replacement by a less experienced successor, she continued, “introduces an element of uncertainty at a time when allies would like to have more certainty in the capital of Europe’s anchor economy.”