
Angela Merkel has been Chancellor of Germany and ‘leader of the Free World,’ according to a rather wishful Wikipedia entry, for 15 years.
In the same period:
- The United States has had 3 Presidents
- Spain has had 3 Prime Ministers
- Canada has had 3 Prime Ministers
- France has had 4 Presidents
- United Kingdom has had 5 Prime Ministers
- Australia has had 6 Prime Ministers
- Italy has had 7 Prime Ministers
- Japan has had 7 Prime Ministers
Even Russia has had two.
Since WW2, Germany has had 8 Chancellors. The average length of rule has been 8 years, but Merkel is not unusual. Konrad Adenauer ruled for 14 years and Helmut Kohl for 16.
I am not sure what to read, if anything, into this or from this. Does it say anything about German political culture more generally or its recent political landscape more specifically? Or is it just a reflection of some part of the German constitution?
A short visual summary of Merkel’s Chancellorship I found interesting.
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