Is everything really Angela Merkel's fault?

 

Angela Merkel
Is everything really Angela Merkel's fault?

Wolfgang Hansson

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 17.44

Quick version

• Angela Merkel has been criticized for making Germany dependent on Russian gas and for shutting down nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
• Her decision to open Germany's borders to refugees in 2015 is believed to have led to widespread negative effects and strengthened anti-immigration parties in Germany.
• Merkel defends her decisions as correct for her time and questions the criticism, especially regarding the relationship with Vladimir Putin, while admitting that she regrets the lack of action against the climate threat.

She shut down nuclear power and made Germany dependent on Russian gas.

She believed that Vladimir Putin could be trusted.

Angela Merkel, who during her 16 years as chancellor was admired and respected, is increasingly questioned.

Is the troubled world we live in purely Merkel's fault?

She has spent the last three years writing her memoirs, which have just come out. In the meantime, she has given almost no interviews at all or commented on the state of the world.

When she now suddenly speaks, she completely rejects all criticism.

She made the decisions that were the right ones at the time. Enough. She regrets nothing.

Not even in light of the situation the world finds itself in today. A situation for which she herself has great responsibility after all these years as Germany's and Europe's undisputed leader.

It was Angela Merkel who more or less overnight decided that Germany would shut down all its nuclear power, eleven fully functioning reactors. This after the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima in Japan in 2011.

Angela Merkel quit as German chancellor in 2021. Pictured here at a hearing in 2022. Photo: Fabian Sommer / AP

To compensate for the energy loss, Germany greatly increased its dependence on Russian fossil gas. The first pipeline from Russia to Germany, Nordstream1 was already completed. Merkel decided to also build Nordstream2 to secure Germany's access to cheap energy.

So when Russia annexed Crimea and started war in eastern Ukraine, Putin already had a strong hold on Merkel.

Merkel, who, after growing up in communist East Germany, mastered Russian, thought she could talk Putin into setting the negotiating table.

It went like that.

A big mistake

When the large flow of refugees came to Europe in 2015, Merkel opened Germany's borders with the words "we can handle it".

Today, the general opinion in Germany and the rest of Europe is that it was a big mistake. The large uncontrolled immigration in a short period of time had extensive negative effects on German society.

Today, anti-immigration parties such as Alternative for Germany, AfD, and Bundnis Sarah Wagenknecht, BSW, have grown so large that Germany may find it difficult to govern after the February elections almost a year without their participation.

Merkel's own conservative party, the CDU, has completely changed to a much stricter immigration policy.

Policy towards Russia has undergone an even greater transformation. Totally natural after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine just a few months after Merkel resigned.

But it has also exposed what in retrospect appears to be Merkel's big mistake.

Her close relationship with Vladimir Putin meant that she did not act forcefully enough when in 2014 Putin completely sonically seized Ukrainian territory.

The former chancellor's book "Freedom" was published on Monday. Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP

Dangerous addiction

She thought that with her experience in negotiating with Putin, she would be able to talk him out of it.

She did not realize in time how dangerously dependent Germany was on Russia.

The real self-goal appears to be the closure of nuclear power. Germany lost a reliable fossil-free energy source.

In addition to the sheer capital destruction of shutting down fully functioning nuclear power plants, it made Germany and thus Europe much more vulnerable.

Angela Merkel after a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, Russia, 2021. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

In a clear rejection of Merkel, the CDU is exploring the possibility of restarting nuclear power.

In her book "Freedom" and in the interviews she gave to launch it, Merkel cold-heartedly accepts most of the criticism. Even in hindsight, she thinks she made the right decisions.

Merkel thinks the criticism is childish and ignores the fact that no matter what one thinks of Putin's actions, Russia is where it is and cannot be ignored. Regardless of when NATO gave Ukraine the go-ahead to apply for membership, Putin, according to Merkel, had not tacitly accepted it.

The different faces of Trump

In the book, she spends very little time analyzing her decisions. It is more of a report mixed with anecdotes from when she met other world leaders.

She describes incoming Donald Trump as two different personalities. One in front of the television cameras where he wants to appear tough and uncompromising and a completely different one on the sidelines when he cares about being liked.

The one she seems to like best is Trump's representative Barack Obama.

Angela Merkel and Donald Trump. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

Although Merkel is not keen on self-criticism, what can the world around her learn from her long leadership.

One lesson is that what appears to be a good decision in one situation is not necessarily so seen in a broader and longer perspective.

No leader has a crystal ball, but it is important to think long-term when making strategic decisions.

One of the few things Merkel admits she regrets is not doing more to get the world to face the climate threat.

A contradictory admission from a person who, instead of fossil-free nuclear power, forced Germany to increase the use of dirty lignite.