What will Angela Merkel do now?

On a visit to the United States in July, Angela Merkel said He said that after the end of her term as counsellor, that This week is overHe’ll try to “read something” and catch up on a few hours of sleep. However, many doubt that he will permanently withdraw from public life. When the German parliament recently allowed her to keep an office and staff of nine after her tenure, “someone noticed that nine isn’t a bad number for someone who just wants to stay on the sofa and read,” He writes the The New York Times.

However, no one has any idea exactly how his days will go over the next few years. Perhaps it is not Merkel herself, who has repeatedly said that she has no exact plans. “Do I want to write? Do I want to speak out? Do I want to travel the world? Do I want to stay at home? That is why I decided that at first I would do nothing, and then we will see what happens,” he said on another occasion in September.

For months, German and European newspapers have been putting forward the most diverse hypotheses about his future, talking about European institutional positions or in the international community, without any remarks. Someone even talked about the possibility of her returning to work as a chemist: perhaps along with her husband Joachim Sauer, who recently Become a partner from the Turin Academy of Sciences and extended his contract as a quantum chemist with the Humboldt University of Berlin until 2022. Merkel also denied this hypothesis: “I can imagine myself regularly speaking publicly about the links between our prosperity, our research and our innovation, but I am sure I will not do any scientific work”, he said to Reuters In November.

transfer of power. German style. pic.twitter.com/hTxlBetmPI

– Eikeklapper (@eikeklapper) December 10, 2021

The most natural choice for a political figure of his caliber would be to pursue a career as a lecturer, as did his predecessor Helmut Schmidt, Social Democrat and Chancellor until 1982, who in an interview in 2012 tale No request for intervention “less than 15,000 euros”. The most controversial choice of the former chancellor remains that made by Gerhard Schroeder, also a Social Democrat, who was appointed in 2005 a few months after his term ended as Member of the lobby group in Gazprom, the Russian state-owned company that controls energy supplies to foreign countries.

If Merkel really wants to become a lobbyist, she will have to wait a while: the 2015 law prohibited Politicians to obtain such a position for at least a year after the end of their term. Therefore, at least for some time, she will attend the office made available to her by Parliament in Berlin, in the center of Unter den Linden, which, moreover, belongs to another predecessor: Helmut Kohl of the CDU, chancellor until 1998.

From the Chancellery to this building – Merkel’s new office will be here

Cole had his office here. So did Margot Honecker, wife of East German leader Erich

Merkel has reportedly told party lawmakers that she will be available for questions, but will not give advice publicly

???? Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/GQ0wvkBCx9

– Thomas Sparrow (@Thomas_Sparrow) December 7, 2021

Merkel will still be able to choose what she will do in the next few years without having to worry about money: as chancellor, she was earning about 25,000 euros a month, which was added to the nearly 10,000 euros from her office as an MP. German wave do some math and Values His pension should be around 15,000 euros per month.