For three years we haven’t heard much about Angela Merkel, but in the last few days there has been a lot of talk about the former Chancellor. The reason: she published her memoirs. At Maybrit Illner she explains how she feels about previous decisions today.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel has written her memoirs. In a good 750 pages she looks back on her life, the political one and the one before it. On Thursday evening, the ex-politician will be a guest of Maybrit Illner on ZDF. And she has a lot to tell.
Freedom, that’s the name of the book. And many people want more freedom and security in these times, in Germany and in the world. This is also what concerns Angela Merkel. “I think that first of all, many people have gotten used to the fact that they can live in freedom,” says the former Chancellor. “Of course you also need security in order to be able to realize freedom individually. The world has become more unsafe. That’s no question . And in this respect, freedom and security are closely linked and the state must of course take a massive interest in security.”
Angela Merkel has to wait a long time before she can lead a life of freedom. The pastor’s daughter from the GDR was 35 years old when the wall came down in 1989 and the borders opened to the west. “I was elected Chancellor in a free election,” remembers Merkel. “It’s nice to be able to unite majorities behind you. But of course in a democracy you’re with lots of other people who are free. That means I have responsibility for others. I’m not free from something, but I’m free to do it, to get involved in something. Others have different opinions, people are created differently, and that is the strength of a democracy: that we are diverse and you have to find compromises and look for majorities.”
She sought compromises, for example when it came to climate protection. She is not entirely satisfied with the result today. “We should have done more,” she says at Illner. She believes the nuclear phase-out decided after the reactor accident in Fukushima, Japan in 2011, which was planned for the end of 2022, was right. “Firstly because I believe that there is no responsibility for such a reactor accident, and secondly because I think it would also be good not to force many other countries that are still developing in the world to do so to go the route of nuclear energy.”
Need for reform of the debt brake
But climate change is just one crisis that governments are grappling with today. Added to this is the war in Ukraine and the ever-deteriorating economic situation. Merkel knows that the traffic light government had a lot of problems to solve. And she praises: “For example, it showed in a very quick way that the dependence on Russian gas could also be eliminated, but at the price of higher energy costs. And that is of course an issue that concerns everyone now and also has an impact on the economy.”
Germany is in a deep economic crisis, for which many blame the traffic light government to some extent. Their remaining coalition partners would like to open up greater scope for action by easing the debt brake. The instrument was written into the constitution during Merkel’s reign, and today it would also put the former Chancellor under scrutiny. “We are under great pressure to invest because at the same time we have to massively increase defense spending, we have to switch to CO2-free technologies, and we realize that we are also partly behind other regions of the world in terms of technology. And that is why a reform is necessary the debt brake, which is based on investments and does not finance social spending from it.” Moderator Maybrit Illner asks whether a reform of the debt brake would have to be tackled before the elections because the democratic parties might no longer have a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag after the election. “The democratic parties should become strong. You won’t be surprised that my party should become particularly strong,” she says, referring to the CDU. However, Merkel does not want to comment on possible election results.
Ukrainian war and migration
But about the war in Ukraine. Russia should not win the war, she says. “This is a flagrant action that Putin has done with Ukraine that violates international law.” That’s why Merkel thinks it’s right to support Ukraine with weapons. “However, I also say that you always have to think about diplomatic solutions at the same time. You don’t have to unpack them now. When the time is right, everyone has to discuss it together: Ukraine as well as its supporters.” Merkel does not see her own mistakes in Russia policy. “The tragedy is that it didn’t end the way I wanted.” The decisions she made back then have to be seen in the context of the time in which they were made. This applies not only to the way she deals with the Russian president, but also to the decisions she made in the refugee crisis in 2015.
“The problem of illegal migration has not been solved,” says Merkel. This has to be solved, but not at the German-Austrian border. “You have to make agreements with the countries of origin and with the transit countries in order to negotiate with them so that illegal migration is reduced and the smugglers and smugglers can no longer carry out their trade.” The EU’s external borders must be protected and agreements with neighbors must be concluded.
In recent weeks, politicians and journalists have repeatedly called on the former Chancellor to apologize for decisions that subsequently turned out to be wrong. For example, that under her leadership Germany has become too dependent on Russian gas. But the former Chancellor sees no reason for apologies. She can only apologize for something that was wrong at the time she made the decisions. And in her own opinion, Merkel did a lot right.
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