Germany has managed this crisis the best of all the Western countries, including the US.
Remains to be seen. I think the jury is still out on that one. To my mind there is one major difference to the way the US is handling this crisis. In Germany all parties seem to have realised that this is not the time for party politics. In the US on the other hand badmouthing the other side seems to be more important than beating the pandemic. Every politician seems to be mainly interested in finding somebody else to blame for the whole mess instead of working together across the party lines. And President Trump seems to be one of the worst offenders, I´m sorry to say. Whatever became of “The buck stops here” ?
On the surface, yes. But Frau Merkel is essentially a caretaker Chancellor, she will not lead her party into the next election, so there is no point in attacking her, she is on the way out. I expect that this crisis will deeply impact the next election. But I don’t think we can see how yet.
The biggest impact will be in Germany’s overt unwillingness to help Italy and Spain in any meaningful way. The primary cheerleader for Europe led the “every country for themselves” approach and this will be devastating for German credibility regarding Europe unity in the future.