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BRUSSELS (AP) – Angela Merkel is still German Chancellor, and could be when European Union leaders meet again, but they gave her a big farewell party at Friday’s EU summit. Even Barack Obama made a cameo video appearance.
Attending her 107th summit, Merkel was feted by her friends and foes in an informal, closed-door ceremony early Friday, where they called her a “compromise machine” at the EU’s Eiffel Tower.
Merkel has been the embodiment of the will for a stronger united Europe for years since she attended her first meeting of European leaders 16 years ago, at a time when Jacques Chirac was still French President and Tony Blair the British Prime Minister.
“You are a monument,” said EU Council President Charles Michel, adding that a summit without it would be like “Rome without the Vatican or Paris without the Eiffel Tower”.
Former US President Obama was equally enthusiastic. “So many people, girls and boys, men and women, have had a role model that they can look up to in difficult times,” he said. “I know because I’m one of them.”
“Thank you,” he added.
Merkel, often making maximum use of the influence of the German juggernaut, has always sought to keep the EU as tightly knit as possible, but has also defended national interests with equal fervor, especially during the financial crisis which has often left her. view colliding with ailing Greece.
Ultimately, however, she embodied what the EU summit itself is all too often. “Frau Merkel was a machine of compromise,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
So many will be sad to see her go. “Your spirit and your experience will stay with us,” said Michel. “You are not leaving us. “
Michel may still be right. Merkel did not stand for re-election in German polls last month and her CDU / CSU Christian Democrats have behaved so badly that they will likely end up in opposition.
The SPD, the Greens and the left-wing FDP announced that they wanted to set up their coalition government in the week of December 6.
Until then, Merkel remains acting Chancellor, and just a few days late could see her return to Brussels for the mid-December summit.
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