Merkel crosses the pond! Former Chancellor lands high profile job offer in New York

Olaf Scholz is sworn in as Germany's new chancellor

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UN chief Antonio Guterres offered the Ex-Chancellor an advisory role at the United Nations. The role is believed to be the chair of a high-ranking advisory body on global public goods.

The Advisory Board on Global Public Goods is one of Guterres’ flagship projects on United Nations reform.

In his report on transforming the UN last year, the secretary-general wrote: “I will ask a High-level Advisory board, led by former Heads of State and Government, to identify global public goods and other areas of common interest where governance improvements are most needed, and to propose options for how this could be achieved.”

The prominent position offered to Merkel would involve focusing on issues such as the ozone layer, vaccines and outer space debris.

According to the UN Chief, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused global friction on issues around human rights, inequalities and disarmament, hence his push for multilateralism.

Merkel’s job offer comes a month after she stepped down as Germany’s Chancellor after 16 years in the role.

The 67-year-old has been out of the political spotlight since handing over the chancellorship to Social Democrat Olaf Scholz in early December.

However, the recent offer – which Guterres reportedly submitted in a letter – would revive her political presence.

It is believed, however, that she has turned down the employment offer.

The former Chancellor’s office confirmed she had “spoken to the UN secretary-general in the last week, thanked him and let him know that she would not be taking up the offer”.

When Merkel left office last month, she said she would no longer be involved in politics but instead intended to sleep and read.

Just a few weeks after leaving office, Merkel said in an interview with the German weekly news magazine, Der Spiegel, that she plans to spend retirement writing a political memoir.

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According to the magazine, Merkel’s longtime aide Beate Baumann is working with her on the book.

The memoir would not “retell (Merkel’s) entire life,” Baumann told Der Spiegel, but rather “explain her key political decisions in her own words, and look back on her life’s journey.”

The book plans to take a look back on her long political career and will likely address some of the more challenging periods of her chancellorship.

This includes the financial crisis of 2008/9, the refugee crisis and coronavirus pandemic.

Additional reporting my Monika Pallenberg.

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