The European Person of the Year

There is a number of terribly unexciting and obvious, or maybe rather dubious candidates for a European Person of the Year award of course. Thus Benedict XVI slackened his church’s stance on the sinfulness of condoms, yet he was forced to deal with (or at times: ignore) constantly recurring pedophilia revelations in Ireland as well as Germany. David Cameron with a little help of his (liberal) friends ended the 13 year Labour-reign. He also has put forward – together with Nicolas Sarkozy – a cooperation pact between French and British militaries easily outpacing NATO in its depth and  – everyday – impact. Yet, he has to introduce an unprecedented budget-cutting program, which threatens British economic recovery and has led to the – slow – emergence of widespread protest

Sarkozy of course apart from the aforementioned military deal, has against the background of an impressive social upheaval pushed through a reform of his country’s pension system that most importantly raised the legal minimum retirement age to 62. Yet, he also has earned scorn for his rhetoric and actions against Romanian Roma namely earning a harsh rebuke from the EU. He is also at or near the center of a number of political scandals involving donations to his party, the use of the French secret service to spy on journalists and accused of corruption in the Karachi affair. Lastly, he has for a while now claimed the unsavory title of least popular French President in office ever.

Angela Merkel has presided over her party’s rout in the North-Rhine-Westphalia elections with her (not so) new (anymore) government considered as incompetent so that her junior coalition partner (the FDP) would not even make it back into the parliament if elections were held today. Berlusconi is clinging to power due to a lack of alternatives and a few timely used donations. A number of more (Alexander Lukashenko) or less (Viktor Orbán) autocratic leaders have consolidated their grip on power through more (a de facto media gag) or less (violence used against demonstrators) democratic measures. Geert Wilders has managed to export his fire-brand right-wing rhetoric as fas as to the US, even while he has started exerting an important degree of influence over the decisions of the Dutch government. Yet, even of these rather despicable candidates none seems like an obvious choice for a person of the year award.

Instead the candidate put forward here will surprise in all likelihood even the most astute political observers out there. It is – drum roll – Mesut Özil. The football (the real kind, sorry Americans) player that is. Now, most will be asking how an athlete of any sport can claim such a relevance as to become the most important person of a year in any political analysis taking itself seriously. Well, hear me out.

While Özil had been known in Germany for a while of course due to his exploits with Bremen alongside Diego and then by himself when the Brazilian had left, he really made a mark on the (football) world due to his (and his team’s) performance during the world cup in South Africa. With the German resurgence, the country’s newfound self-confidence, it is far less indulging (European) foreign policy a topic not just here but elsewhere, Özil personifies this new Germany far more affirmative on the international scene than at any other time post-war and its strengths to a tee. Following his joga bonita and nomination as the best player of the tournament he signed a new contract with Real Madrid leaving Germany. Thus, he can suddenly be seen as a symbol for the German Exportwunder, which is cause for as much pride in Germany as of worry outside of it. With the United States, Greece, Ireland, Spain and others desperately (admittedly to varying degrees) trying to diminish their current account deficits and capital account surpluses, Germany and China’s trade surpluses and their concurrent lack of domestic consumption have been one of the topics of the year of course.

Özil then is a German of Turkish descent personifying larger societal developments in that sense as well. While the new German President Wulff recently (finally!) put forward the proposition that Islam were a part of Germany too, this caused a hailstorm of criticism from his own – conservative – party. Yet, Özil as the first (truly important and popular – there was Mustafa Doğan before and now there is Semir Khedira as well) player in the German national team at least nominally Muslim serves as an important symbol of the normalcy of Islamic life in most German towns nonetheless widespread attempts to deny this reality. Yet, Özil also can be seen as a reflection of the problems with the (perceived) integration issues Germans in particular and Europeans in general have with their most recent immigrants. As French youngsters of Maghrebian origins jeered the French national team during the France-Tunisia match in Paris in late 2008, so did Germans of Turkish origins boo Özil when Germany played Turkey in Berlin this fall. Conservative politicians of all nationalities seize upon these opportunities in order to renew the never-ending, yet always supposedly new and daringly frank, discussion of the lack of integration of certain (insert specific country of origin here) youths, the danger they represent to the established national status quo, and what kind of harsh legal measures should be taken to ensure that things get better. Some whether they be Marine LePen and her comparison of Muslim prayers on French streets with the German occupation or Sarrazin’s eugenic prophecies of German self-destruction don’t even need this kind of incitation of course.

Why is Özil the European Person of the Year then? Not because of his crisp passes nor his goals (link), but rather of what he, involuntary at times, stands for, what he symbolizes. Yet, I would challenge you to find a person that more perfectly represents the economic, inter-state and inner-societal conflicts that made up 2010 in most of Europe.