Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande, Macron… Angela Merkel's confessions on French presidents

These are highly anticipated memoirs. Since she left power three years ago, her words have been rare. Chancellor between 2005 and 2021, Angela Merkel was at the heart of all the tremors that affected Europe and the world. Over nearly 700 pages, it discusses the economic crisis of 2008, pressure from Vladimir Putin, the rescue of Greece, the arrival of Donald Trump, the migrant crisis…

A dense story, which sometimes gets lost in overly technical details, “Liberté” gives an important place to the “famous Franco-German couple”. Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande, Macron… Angela Merkel worked alongside four Presidents of the Republic and talks about her meetings in her book.

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The first dates from 2005. Barely appointed chancellor, Angela Merkel meets Jacques Chirac, president since 1995 and great friend of Gerhard Schröder. “Jacques Chirac and I formed a disparate couple, he was twenty-two years older than me and drew on decades of political experience,” she wrote, admitting to having been “filled with the respect his career inspired in me.” . One point of disagreement, however: the new chancellor refused to use the Chiraquian expression of “Franco-German axis”: “It involuntarily recalled dark eras in Germany and then the image seemed too rigid to me. »

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“Sarkozy spoke at lightning speed”

In 2007, the breakup. Nicolas Sarkozy moves to the Élysée. His first trip is to Berlin. Contact is easy. Angela Merkel remembers a characteristic of the French president: “He spoke at lightning speed. » The five-year term will be one of storms. Often pushed around, sometimes annoyed, Merkel listens to Sarkozy and often joins him in the interest of Europe. And expresses regret. “It seems excessive to me to have refused the expression “economic government”, I could have adhered to it. »

François Hollande succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. First trip to Berlin, too. Angela Merkel is silent on the hazards of this first epic visit: the plane struck by lightning, the hesitations on the carpet where the new president seems embarrassed… The former chancellor returns extensively to the Greek debt crisis and Vladimir's chin thrusts Putin on the Ukrainian question. Then came the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015. “When I learned that a commemorative march would take place on Sunday in Paris for the victims of these attacks, I called François Hollande again. I wanted to participate, she wrote. I had never invited myself anywhere before, but this time I did. Hollande thanked me, but began by telling me that my presence was not necessary. I didn't change my mind though and he finally agreed for me to come. »

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2017: French presidents change, the chancellor stays. Angela Merkel will manage with Emmanuel Macron the Covid epidemic which will put the world under lockdown. For the first time, the German leader gives in and proposes a recovery plan of 500 billion euros. However, she is not very forthcoming about her relationship with the head of state, only revealing that she “found solutions to difficult political problems during private meetings. » In the portfolio that accompanies the book, Angela Merkel shows herself moved by her final visit to France, on November 3, 2021. In Burgundy, at the Château du Clos de Vougeot, Emmanuel Macron awarded her the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor , concluding 16 years of such a special relationship between Germany and France.

“Freedom”, by Angela Merkel, Albin Michel, 32 euros