Tony Blair will leave 10 Downing Street for good on June 27.
Blair, a man of great political contradictions, helped the British economy to flourish during his 10 years in office. At the same time, he took the country into a deeply unpopular war in Iraq at the side of the United States -- a move that ultimately made him lose the trust of the British people. Yet he also delivered what appears will be lasting peace in Northern Ireland. In the end though, these contradictions were too great for Blair to continue to lead and he fell on his own sword. In Germany, editorialists on Friday have deeply mixed views of Blair's leadership.
The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:
"Only rarely has a politician in recent European history started out as promisingly as Tony Blair in 1997. And seldom has a politician fallen so far. When he resigned on Thursday, a sigh of relief could be heard across Britain. But he didn't deserve it. Despite all the resentment towards him, one thing is certain: Blair was an absolutely successful politician. Young Blair transformed an old and crusty Labour Party -- which had fallen hopelessly into unending internal disputes after years in the opposition -- into a smoothly functioning election machine and ultimately into a well organized governing party."
"Blair also transformed an ossified England bound by outmoded tradition. 'Cool Britannia' was more than an advertising slogan -- it's something you can feel. The Britain of today under Blair has grown more tolerant, has more joie de vivre, it's more modern and it's more cosmopolitan. Blair hasn't achieved anything near what his cabinet likes to claim, but it nonetheless invested major sums in schools, clinics and its ailing transportation infrastructure. … With his labor market reforms, Blair's New Labour forced people to wake up, become more flexible and work harder (for lower wages, too). The result is that the standard of living is higher, the middle class has grown and the upper class has also seen its wealth grow."
"Blair's foreign policy, though, will be overshadowed by mistakes he made. … The war (in Iraq) was the most important one -- it was his historical challenge. And it's a tragedy that a politician of this calibre didn't pass the test. When the British take stock of his terms, the word Iraq will be the sum total. It will take a long time before they recognize how significant Blair's other achievements were."
The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Tony Blair is leaving behind a British politics in which anything appears to be possible. The Labour Party is in terrible shape, with fewer members than when Blair entered office and a demoralized activist base that's happy even when the party gets as much as 25 percent of the vote in local elections. The opposition Conservatives are gaining in the polls thanks to a new generation of leadership, but they are still far away from the broad enthusiasm Blair's 'New Labour' enjoyed among the masses 10 years ago."
"During the Thatcher era until the beginning of the 1990s, the conservatives were an unchallenged cultural and political hegemony. And after Blair's start as Labour leader, it was the Labour Party that overshadowed everything else. … But with Blair's disappearance, future Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition Conservative leader David Cameron will be on equal footing. That hasn't happened in British politics in decades."
"A situation like this in a new era should actually prompt a heated discussion about ideology and the country's future direction. But there's no sign of that happening in Britain right now. Instead, there is a feeling of political apathy. Brits today no longer have the feeling that decisions made at the ballot box will have much influence on their lives. And that's the most disastrous legacy of the Blair era."
The conservative Die Welt writes:
"Blair may have been the face of modernity to the British people (when he came into office), but in the end he was reduced in the eyes of his people to the status of an English George W. Bush. The Iraq war has created three main victims: Saddam Hussein, the US president and his British colleague."
"With a little time, Britain will think differently of Blair though. Blair modernized his party and also preserved the economic success that Thatcher established with her reforms. He also ended the conflict in Northern Ireland. Finally, his island stood for a Europe that could have been: rich, liberated of the socialism of the 1960s and 1970s and with an impressive army and a close partnership with the US. None of his European colleagues can claim the same."
"The Blair era coincided with an epoch of European weaknesses caused by domestic political crises and conflicts in France, Italy and Germany. This led to a situation where the most important countries in the EU were unable to lead the continent. A French Blair could have helped, and maybe we'll find that in Nicolas Sarkozy. He is entering office to turn his country inside out and to infuse it with new strength that could be good for Europe."
Looking to Blair's likely successor Brown, the center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung opines:
"Should a Prime Minister Brown attempt to continue to follow the Blair government's policy line or should he create a new roadmap for the country? Of course he has to do both. The devil will be in the details, though, because Brown was too powerful from the very start (of the Blair era). He can't exactly step up to bat today and say that he's finally going to do things differently. People could then just ask why he didn't do things differently from 1997 to 2007 (when he stood powerfully in the shadows behind Blair)? But if the Brown government just continues on the same line as the Blair/Brown government, then people will ask why Blair bothered to step down."
"The Labour Party is demoralized, voters are increasingly dissatisfied and they will only remain interested for a short time. If Brown wants to make an impression that will last, then he will have to somehow surprise voters. … Should he pull the British troops out of Iraq? Blair's already done that in principle -- and there is now a deadline for the British engagement in Iraq. … Should he announce the Britain will adopt the euro? He'd be carried out of Downing Street in a straightjacket if he did. Should he say that Britain will decommission its nuclear arms because they are too expensive? Blair already blocked that. In a recent vote on the next generation of American nuclear missiles, Blair only won because there were more 'yes' votes from Conservatives than 'no' votes from the Labour faction -- and that wasn't the first time that happened. Perhaps that's the perfect recipe: The Brown government could attempt to start looking more like a Labour government."
-- Daryl Lindsey, 1 p.m. CET
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