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Comment by dis-sys | Hacker News Reader

Of course not, Merkel will be politically gone in a few years, she will be slowly forgotten just like many previous German leaders. There will probably be a couple of words about her in the book of history but do you believe she is going to shape the future of this world? ;)

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This comment does nothing to assuage the impression that Xi's goals are of an autocratic nature.

I think she already has, for the better.

Some might argue that she indeed shaped the future of this world by accelerating the demise of Europe as a modern and heavyweight force in the world.

Wut? The EU in the Merkel years went through some complex growth crisis; she helped resolving them in ways that undeniably benefited Germany and, in some cases, helped the bloc as well. Some of her choices (Schaußle...) weren’t great, but she hardly killed the EU project single-handedly - the project is actually very much alive, with commissioners increasingly flexing their muscles towards the world at large. If anything, she’s managed to keep some contradictory stances together for longer than many expected.

> she helped resolving them in ways that undeniably benefited Germany

A lot of smart people actually deny that.

Which ones?

In other news: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-books-...

> modern

I don't know: digital rights, digital privacy, climate change? Those all sounds fairly modern to me.

> heavyweight

What other large political institution in the world says "Nope, not with our citizens" to big data, and actually sees it through?

> the demise of Europe

has been greatly exaggerated.

You’re aware of automatic face recognition in Berlin‘s public places, the Diesel scandal, flight passenger data agreements and so on, aren’t you?

For your data point, I can assure you that eu govs are just lagging behind, they failed to keep pace. They will get there, trust me.

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