Volks Mutti

It was back in 2018 when Ms Merkel announced she would be stepping down after the next German federal elections. After this weekend's vote, it is unlikely a new German chancellor will emerge immediately, so she may not be leaving the world stage just yet. But in the meantime, she has promised that if she has to be a caretaker chancellor, she will not rock the boat.

This is perhaps to be expected from a woman known as a reliable, steady stalwart – the epitome of stability.

Yet, aside from the restrained reliability, there have been moments in the last 16 years when her personality has shined through, despite her not being viewed as a leader who dominates through their charisma.

In one particular photo, the body language adopted by Ms Merkel at the G7 leaders summit in Quebec, spoke volumes when confronted by a truculent Donald Trump.

Leaning forward, into his space as he leans back on his chair, arms folded, others stand aside looking frustrated as she appears to be striving to get the disruptive US president to take part in a joint action.

In the aftermath of Mr Trump's victory in 2016, some declared Ms Merkel the new leader of the free world, because she remained a champion of liberal Western democratic values, in the face of the then US president's America First approach.

Ms Merkel's role as an advocate for cooperation not confrontation has been evident from her willingness to engage with Russian president Vladimir Putin, when many other world leaders have been reticent to do so.

With her fluency in Russian, her upbringing amid Cold War politics and her forthright nature, she was willing and able to take on the ruler many Western countries find most difficult to deal with.

She has visited Moscow at least 21 times, far more than any other G7 leader, and has been hailed for helping to bring Russia to the table over issues like the Ukraine civil war, when others would have failed.

It is a relationship in which she has had to show all the steel she is famous for. On at least two occasions, Mr Putin has apparently, during their meetings, presented her with a dog (one real and one toy) – despite her being afraid of dogs.

After Mr Putin allowed his labrador Koni to approach Merkel, she said rather witheringly in an interview afterwards: "I understand why he has to do this – to prove he's a man."

But the relationship has been criticised too – particularly with respect to Germany's reliance on Russian gas and the development of Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that some fear will weaken Europe's hand in its relations with its eastern neighbour.

However, she is the one Western leader who has been around at the top nearly as long as Mr Putin and their relationship will be hard to replace, considering his open respect for her. He has said: "I trust her. She is a very open person," adding that she "really makes an honest effort towards resolving crises".

Germany is not known as a place where disasters are commonplace, but on the odd occasion tragedy has struck, the long standing German leader has cemented her place as the country's Mummy figure, with all the appropriately soothing words and deeds.

When 21 died of crushing while attending a Love Parade dance festival in 2010, the chancellor was quick to express she was "aghast" at the "sorrow and the pain". Within days of the devastating floods that hit the Ahr Valley in 2021, she vowed not to "forget" the people affected, and ordered the federal government take over the recovery operation, green-lighting billions of euros for the rebuild.

In the wake of an Islamic State-linked truck attack on a Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12, in a year that also saw 10 people die in separate German gun, bomb, axe and machete terror attacks and dozens die in neighbouring France, she called for compassion for refugees, despite condemning "murderers who are full of hate". She has also attended vigils following attacks on Jewish targets.

The relationship with her country goes both ways. In 2019 there was much attention when she was seen shaking in public, there was an outpouring of concern, both for her and against those who drew attention to it.

Like all Germans who had a deep understanding of the Nazi and Stasi era, those who spoke out in support for her were adamant she should have a life that remains private.

Sour Kraut

Inevitably, after 16 years at the top, there remains a number of criticisms of her legacy, besides the resentment from some about the high number of immigrants allowed to stay in 2015.

Within months of the influx caused by the migration crisis, there was a sharp rise in far-right-linked violence, spiking after a long period which saw relatively few incidents.

In the 2017 election, the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party, which had only been founded four years before, became the third largest party in the Bundestag. It came in a country that has a longstanding ban on Nazi symbols.

And while support for the AfD appears to have slipped slightly since 2017, violence linked to the far-right has surged and has reached a 20-year high since records began.

The epicentre of much of the hate crime is the old East, underscoring how a woman who grew up there has failed to tackle the degree to which the area previously under communist control has remained disadvantaged since unification.

Many say that unification – which brought together two countries and completely different systems after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, costing hundreds of billions of Deutschmarks and then euros – has been a success, and Ms Merkel has presided over a German economy that has prospered despite the cost. But others say it has been at the expense of the old East, which is still economically behind the old West German regions.

Another criticism levelled at Ms Merkel's Germany is its failure to fully switch to the renewable energy she said it would embrace after she decided to abandon nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

If the Greens do well on Sunday, it might be put down to the long standing chancellor earlier this year rejecting demands to bring forward an exit date for coal-powered energy generation in Germany. That date of 2038 is almost decades behind countries like the UK.