It is an irony vindicated by history: failure as the aftermath of greatness. In the life of a nation, a leader appears as the chosen harbinger of change and renewal. Once the mission was accomplished, it would be a grand good bye, often in the form of an electoral humiliation.The best examples in Europe are Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, leaders who tried in vain to overstay the invitation. Helmut Kohl, the longest-serving ruler of any modern democracy, has been in power for a record 16 years. On Sunday, the Germans gave him a grand farewell party, and Kohl, like his more illustrious predecessors from Britain and France, thought the farewell could have been postponed for another day. But even in defeat, his place in history is secure. He goes out as the chancellor of a different Germany, which can be easily described as `Kohlossal' without being awesome. The last of the post-War titans, of the Cold War vintage, Kohl has never failed to read the text of history. The German reunification marked hisfirst tryst with history. And his vision didn't stop at the repudiation of the Berlin Wall. He wanted to break the internal frontiers of Europe. He was the ultimate European who was even willing to sacrifice the greatest of German icons the D-mark for the creation of a European super-state. And it was Kohl's Germany which had demolished the national institution of guilt by sending troops abroad for peace missions. Germany is today a normal country, and it has asked an extraordinary politician to take some rest.So welcome to post-Kohl Germany, Gerhard Schroeder's Germany. The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has got a winning lead over centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) not on the strength of the vision thing, for Schroeder's vision is still very hazy. Schroeder, the next chancellor, is the child of `Kohl fatigue'. A vote for change may be a cliche, but, unfortunately, Kohl too has become a cliche that weary predictability, that overwhelming sense of familiarity. True, the drift inEurope's largest economy, with its two-digit unemployment rate, has contributed to the Social Democratic ascent. Kohl reached out to history by tightening the domestic belt: cutback in the welfare state. The Socialist slogan, `The New Middle', is actually a slick muddle which refuses to go into the details. Echoing New Labour and New Democrat, Schroeder's slogan captures the socialist zeitgeist: the state will be a copassionate interventionist in the market.Perhaps it was more than a German election. The Social Democratic victory follows a European pattern: 10 out of the 15 EU countries have today centre-left governments. In this `pink kingdom', Tony Blair is the prince charming, and Lionel Jospin the quiet philosopher. In the age of globalisation, the New Socialist has restored society in the market. The right has won the economic argument long ago. And the New Socialist admits that. The difference, as Jospin says, is: market economy yes; market society, no. The `Third Way' is the new soundbite, whichSchroeder has translated as the `New Middle'. No more grand themes, Herr Kohl, time for the little home truth. And that perhaps explains why Germany has opted for a new Middleman.
