Christine Lagarde: North Rhine-Westphalia State Prize - laudatory
speech
Laudatory speech by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank,
for Angela Merkel at the award ceremony for the North Rhine-Westphalia State Prize,
Cologne, 16 May 2023.
* * *
Dear Madam Chancellor, dear Angela,
Dear Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr Wüst,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a privilege to be here today to give this speech in recognition of you, dear Angela,
as you receive North Rhine-Westphalia's highest honour, the State Prize.
We are on the banks of the Rhine in the wonderful city of Cologne, the birthplace of
Konrad Adenauer, once the city's Lord Mayor and later Germany's first Chancellor. And
I know that the symbolism of this place will not be lost on you.
In important ways, the contours of your lives have overlapped. You followed in his
footsteps some 40 years later, becoming the first female Chancellor of Germany. Just
recently, you were awarded the Grand Cross 1st class, special issue, of the Order of
Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The only other chancellors to be given such
honours were Helmut Kohl and Adenauer.
As a reminder of Germany's past and of those who came before you, you displayed
Oskar Kokoschka's portrait of Chancellor Adenauer behind your desk in the
Chancellery.
But Adenauer was also a guiding light in more fundamental ways.
You share, for example, a deep understanding of and respect for the value of
democracy. "Democracy is more than a parliamentary form of government," Adenauer
said. "It is a philosophy of life that has its roots in the concept of the dignity, the value
and the inalienable rights of each individual human being."1
Having grown up in a dictatorship, you know better than anyone that democracy and
freedom cannot be taken for granted. They are hard won and easily lost. In a speech in
2021 to mark German reunification, you said "Democracy doesn't just happen. We have
to keep working for it together, every day".2
And - just like Adenauer - that is what you did throughout your political career. It was
what drove your leadership. You were the antidote to a growing wave of populism,
which the author Moisés Naím describes as a new malignant form of power that mimics
democracy while undermining it.3
Like Adenauer, you also stood unwaveringly for European unity, shepherding the
European construction through incredibly testing times.
The reconciliation between France and Germany after the war was profoundly
influenced by the friendship between Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle. It reignited the
relationship between their two countries, which they deepened by signing the Elysée
Treaty in 1963. They prepared the ground for the advances in European integration that
followed.
Likewise, you strove to position Germany as a reliable and stable partner in Europe,
anchoring the Union through crises that could have otherwise torn us apart. You knew
that the futures of Germany and Europe were inseparable, and that a strong and united
Europe was the best way to secure your country's prosperity. You succeeded, despite
the major challenges that arose along the way.
But, Angela, you are also you. Unique, incomparable, inimitable. I believe the success
you have achieved in your remarkable career is down to three of your attributes.
First, you have a sense of curiosity and a demand for rigour that help you understand
and find solutions to the most complex problems. This is what I call Angela "the
scientist".
Second, you have the humility to seek consensus when others may be held back by
ego, and the finesse to bring people to an agreement. This is Angela "the pragmatist".
Third, you have the inner strength and conviction to defend your most deeply held
values when they are most at risk. This is Angela "the moral force".
So let me explore these three qualities in more detail.
The scientist
You have spoken about the challenges of growing up behind the Iron Curtain, yet it
instilled in you qualities that - seen from the outside - have been indispensable to your
success. As information was strictly controlled, you developed your own sense of
curiosity, seeking out everything you wanted to learn, including what the socialist
regime did not want to teach you. And because openly speaking your mind was
dangerous - something you understood early on - you learned to be judicious,
developing a strong sense of self-reliance. You once told me that you would learn the
most important information by heart - so as to leave no trace for the Stasi.
You then chose to study physics, which gave you a way to remain true to yourself, even
under dictatorship. "Even under Honecker, two times two had to be four," you said.4
Were it not for the German Democratic Republic, you would have liked to teach
5
languages. Instead, you did your PhD in quantum chemistry and started working at the
Academy of Sciences in East Berlin.
Then, something happened that you didn't expect. The wall came down, peacefully.
"The biggest surprise of my life is freedom," you said in your inaugural speech at the
Bundestag in 2005. "I expected many things, but not the gift of freedom before my
retirement age."6
Suddenly, you were free to do as you pleased. You left physics and entered politics,
rising rapidly through the ranks. You were voted into the Bundestag in 1990 and soon
became Minister for Women and Youth in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet.
You wanted to shape the future of this newly reunited Germany. And yet, since a life in
politics had never been your plan, you brought with you the analytical rigour of your
scientific training, the curiosity of the researcher, and an unyielding search for the truth.
I was immediately struck by this when our paths first crossed at a meeting between the
French and German Governments in 2005, shortly after you were sworn in. I remember
thinking how refreshing it was to meet a woman chancellor, especially one so young,
fearless, and brilliant.
I was Minister of Trade in the delegation of President Jacques Chirac. We discussed
the launch of the first joint French-German history book for schoolchildren. You praised
the initiative, saying that it would deepen the friendship between France and Germany.
"Everything starts with education," you said.
And you, Angela, are the living proof of this.
The pragmatist
what how
But it is not enough in politics to know to do. One must also know to do it. The
statesmen and women that history remembers are those who marry a careful analysis
of the situation with an ability to rally others and bring about change.
This is you in a nutshell, Angela.
The fact that you hit your stride so quickly in politics - to the surprise of many of your
male colleagues - was because you had a different approach: less ego-driven, and
more results-oriented. You were a pragmatist in the truest sense of the word, engaging
deeply with complex problems, identifying the space for agreement, and then being
able to bring people together to find solutions.
This is one of your key strengths - and something I could tell you also enjoyed. During
G20 meetings, for example, you would get up and talk to other leaders around the
table. You would listen, discuss and negotiate. You would walk over to the colleagues
drafting the communiqué for the meeting, taking out your pen, crossing out sections and
making sure that key sentences were included.
I have never seen any other leader do this - and at many key moments it proved critical.
Thanks to your inclusive and consensus-driven style, you were instrumental in forging a
compromise when Greece's future in the euro area was on the line. We held a crisis
meeting during one weekend in July 2015. The meeting went on well into the early
hours. Many leaders had already left the room, but you stayed until a solution was
found, together with me and a few others. I was there as Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund. We managed to find a way to keep Greece inside the euro
area, and you played a crucial role in getting us there. The consequences of Greece
exiting would have been much greater than any risks posed by another rescue
package. It was the right decision, as we now know, even if some at the time were not
convinced or had their doubts.
Your keen interest in understanding complex issues, often completely immersing
yourself in the matter in question, helped you during those intense meetings. I
remember one occasion when you pored over the IMF's model assumptions about
Greece's debt sustainability. Thankfully our calculations broadly survived your scrutiny,
but you made sure to question and fully understand them. It was rare to see this kind of
attention to detail from someone in your position. It impressed me.
But it was no coincidence that you were always the best prepared person in the room.
You were the best in class at school, and that work ethic never left you. Yet knowing
your brief inside out had another benefit for you: it meant that you didn't have to rely on
others. You could take matters into your own hands - and deliver the outcomes that no
one else could.
The moral force
Your pragmatism, however, never drifted into opportunism. The clarity of your moral
compass made sure of that. And this is the third attribute, Angela, that stands out: your
moral force.
You served four terms as Chancellor, a total of 16 years. Everything you did during
those 5,860 days as Chancellor was grounded in your values. Your moral compass
guided you even at times when there was not - yet - a majority in favour of your
decisions. Your fixed points were freedom and democracy, the good of the German
people and the strength of the European Union. There was no place for hyperbolic
ideologies.
Your experience growing up in a dictatorship, surrounded by a wall, also meant that you
did not turn a blind eye to the suffering and hardship of others. This was on display
most clearly when we saw hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in
the summer of 2015. Others built fences and closed their borders, but you kept your
country's borders open. You welcomed those who were looking for refuge.
Though you earned a lot of praise around the world for that decision, you were harshly
criticised at home. But you did not waver. You stood by your decision - because it was
the right thing to do.
As the Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll - who was born here in Cologne - wrote: "Freedom
is not a gift, it is something that is earned." Your actions gave those people a chance to
find freedom where you had found it so many years before.
You were often underestimated because you were a woman or because you came from
East Germany. You were often the outsider who nobody could quite place. But instead
of being upset or angry about this, you used it to your advantage - against your
opponents, and in favour of the many millions who have benefited from your
compassion and conviction.
Conclusion
Let me conclude.
As Germany's first female Chancellor, you steered your country and Europe through a
series of crises: the great financial crisis, the European debt crisis, the refugee crisis
and the coronavirus pandemic. And especially after the pandemic, amid a global trend
towards fragmentation, it has become clear that we need Europe more than ever to
pool our strengths and to make up for our weaknesses.
You were the antidote to the emerging populist movements that feed on fake news and
false narratives, polarising our societies. You stood for unity while others sowed division.
Throughout your career you were driven by a deep respect for the precious gifts of
democracy and freedom. In keeping with that, you stepped down voluntarily when you
felt that it was time to move on.
The people of Germany and Europe can be proud to have had such a principled leader,
who worked day and night to preserve their prosperity with patience, pragmatism, and
persistence.
Dear Angela, you were an exceptional leader in exceptional times.
Congratulations.
1
Adenauer, K. (1946), Die Demokratie ist für uns eine Weltanschauung - Aus einer
Grundsatzrede zum Programm der CDU , 6 March
2
Merkel, A. (2021), Speech to mark the Day of German Unity , 3 October.
3
Naím, M. (2022), The Revenge of Power - How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for
the 21st Century , St Martin's Press, New York.
4
Roll, E. (2009), Die Kanzlerin - Angela Merkels Weg zur Macht , Ullstein, Berlin, p.
108.
5
Weber, E. (2022), Merkel - Macht der Freiheit , Netflix .
6
Merkel, A. (2005), Government Policy Statement, 30 November.