LONDON—In another era they could have been allies. Both vicars’ daughters and born just a few years apart, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain share an understated pragmatism and conservative roots, and have made their way in the still largely man’s world of politics. But there could be so much more.
At a time when President Donald J. Trump is lashing out at friend and foe, and when the macho politics of strongmen is resurgent from Moscow to Manila, when not just the European Union (EU) but high-minded Western values, free trade and security alliances are under attack, the two women might have worked together to defend the liberal global order.
Instead, because of Britain’s vote last June to leave the EU, they find themselves on opposite sides of the biggest divorce in recent European history, a chasm that has fundamentally reordered their priorities and is hindering them from cooperating on the broader issues.
At a meeting of European leaders in Malta last week, May and Merkel abruptly canceled a planned bilateral meeting after a brief exchange during a sightseeing excursion was deemed enough. After lunch, when it came to discussing the threats facing Europe, May was shown the door.
Their differing priorities were on ample display last week as they dealt with Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Merkel, whose overriding strategic ambition as Germany’s leader is to save the EU, has kept her distance from Trump. After his election, she firmly outlined the liberal values on which she was prepared to work with him, and she swiftly condemned his travel ban aimed at seven Muslim-majority countries.
May, whose priority is to sign bilateral trade deals to offset her country’s departure from Europe’s single market, rushed to be the first foreign leader received by Trump after he took office.
Apparently pleased to be caught on camera holding his hand, she extended a speedy invitation for a state visit with Queen Elizabeth II. “Opposites attract,” she beamed.
The invitation has since become a polarizing issue in Britain’s sharply divided political landscape, and reinforced a view on the Continent that as Britain cuts ties with Europe, it will become the United States’s lap dog.
“It’s chalk and cheese,” said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European history at Oxford. “But none of this tells you very much about the contrasting character of the two women. It tells you about the contrasting positions of the two countries.”
If Merkel can still afford to be an idealist, Britain’s plan to leave the EU, or Brexit, has turned May into a calculating realist. Within hours of leaving Trump, she was on a plane to Turkey. Upon arriving, May waffled in her judgment of Trump’s travel ban, later stiffening her criticism after a public outcry. She also negotiated a deal with Turkey involving the British defense company BAE Systems.
Five days later, Merkel paid her own visit to Erdogan and looked far clearer in her resolve when faced with the autocratic Turkish leader, calmly noting that she had raised controversial issues, like press freedom and Turkey’s future constitution.
Privately, German officials express some sympathy for May’s sometimes clumsy diplomacy, understanding that she needs new partners if she is to make good on her promise of a “Global Britain”.
But only occasionally have there been glimpses of the partnership that might have been.
Last July Merkel was almost effusive in welcoming May, who chose Berlin for her first foreign trip as prime minister. The German chancellor emphasized their countries’ “common values”.
During a news conference, both women stiffly answered questions about Brexit. Then a journalist asked about their first impressions of each other. Their body language visibly loosened.
Merkel laughed, and May said, “We have two women here who, if I may say so, want to get on with the job.”
Their shared gender has led to many lazy comparisons, said Rosa Prince, author of a biography of May that is to be published this month.
“When you are a female political leader of a certain age, you are inevitably compared to Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel,” she said. “Theresa May is nothing like Margaret Thatcher, but as it happens has quite a lot in common with Angela Merkel.”
Each cautious and deliberate, they are both childless, have quiet husbands and enjoy watching sports (Merkel knows soccer; May prefers cricket). An Oxford graduate and lawmaker since 1997, May was Britain’s longest-serving home secretary of modern times before taking over from Prime Minister David Cameron in the confusion that followed the Brexit referendum. As Prince put it, “She was the last woman standing after all the men got burned or ran away.”
Merkel, a scientist before she went into politics, is used to being the only woman in the room. Evelyn Roll, a German biographer of Merkel, said that, on the advice of a German actress, the chancellor had deliberately lowered the pitch of her voice to deter men from talking over her.
Both women endured condescension and outright misogyny as they rose. May has been called a “bloody difficult woman” by a fellow minister. Merkel’s predecessor and mentor, Helmut Kohl, patronized her as “my girl”.
Even after Merkel unseated Kohl as leader of the Christian Democrats amid a party financing scandal, Germany’s male-dominated news media belittled her as efficient but bland—until she took office in 2005 and gradually became “Mutti”, the mother of the nation.
“The only way men can process that a woman is in power is apparently to liken her to their mother,” Roll said. Merkel, who grew up in Germany’s former Communist east, has never branded herself a feminist. But on her watch Germany has introduced boardroom quotas for women and created a generous system of paid parental leave shared between mothers and fathers.
May once wore a T-shirt that read, “This is what a feminist looks like.”
In 2005 May cofounded a group called Women2Win to elect more women to Parliament and then nurture them, something that Thatcher was often criticized for not doing.
Image credits: AP/Rene Rossignaud