Joschka Fischer on Angela Merkel and the 2017 election

This is really sad. It's Joschka Fischer pumping up Angela Merkel as the savior of The West: "Den Westen" könnte es bald nicht mehr geben Süddeutsche Zeitung 29.09.2016. Fischer is the formerly radical Green Party leader who served as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister in the red-green national government in Germany in 1998–2005.

I appreciate Fischer's "realist" view on foreign policy. But his position in this article is a lazy centrism over the problems of the EU. He argues that both the right (the AfD/Alternative for Germany) and the Left Party are pursuing a nationalist course and both want to kiss up to Russia.

So Angela Merkel is the last, best hope for saving "the West," i.e., the European Union.

Say what?!

Yes, that's really what he says:

Man kann nur hoffen, dass diese Kelche allesamt an uns vorübergehen. Und man sieht auch, was vom Verbleiben Angela Merkels im Amt der Bundeskanzlerin über 2017 hinaus abhängt - für Deutschland, für Europa und den Westen.

[One can only hope the this cup will pass from all of us. And one also sees how much is dependent on Angela Merkel staying in office as Federal Chancellor after 2017 - for Germany, for Europe and the West.]