Angela speaks. The recent interview granted by Merkel al Corriere della Sera has rekindled the spotlight on the figure of the former German Chancellor, who for 16 years guided the Germany and theEurope. Merkel has frankly addressed hot topics such as her relationship with Vladimir Putin, the migrant crisis and energy policies, offering a staunch defense of her choices during her long chancellorship.
The relationship with Putin
During the interview, attention was focused in particular on his relationship with the Russian President, shrouded in criticism following Russian aggression against Ukraine. “I knew President Putin’s intentions very well. He has always expressed them both publicly and in confidential conversations,” Merkel said. “The question is only how one reacts. My response was not to no longer have any relationship with Putin, but rather to try to prevent the invasion of Ukraine through conversations, sometimes very polemical in which I didn’t use any turns of phrase.”
Then addressing the discussion on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Merkel explained her choice not to block it after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014: “I considered it my task to ensure that the German economy could exploit the possibility of having cheap gas. Furthermore, for political reasons I wanted to maintain economic relations with Russia so that that country could also participate in prosperity.”
On the European defense front, Angela Merkel admitted some delays: “In Germany we were unable to build a potential deterrent quickly enough.” But he also expresses himself on the need for balance in foreign policy: “We need double action, on the one hand talks and contacts, on the other deterrence”. In short: with Russia we need to show the stick, but also the carrot. And the war in Ukraine? Merkel has clear ideas: in the meantime she remembers that in her time he said no to Kiev’s entry into NATO because “it would have been like declaring war on Putin”. And regarding the end of the conflict, she remains convinced that nothing must “go over Zelensky’s head”, but “nIt cannot be Kiev alone who decides.” Western allies will also have their role.
The new book
The former Chancellor will land in bookstores in a few days with her memoirs. The book is called “Freedom” and contains the truths of the most powerful European politics of the last century. “Only now that I am no longer chancellor and while I was writing the book, I began to reflect more deeply on my childhood and my life in the GDR,” Merkel explained. On her role at the helm of Germany, while acknowledging some responsibilities in the final part of her mandates, the former Chancellor believes she did a good job: “They were good years for the economy, in which we increased investments, and where thanks to economic solidity, we have improved a lot in the social sphere”. Not even on the austerity imposed in Berlin as in Brussels it takes no step backwards. The debt brake, he explained, “forced restraint on the federal government and the Länder, so that they did not live beyond their means.” Now, however, the world has changed and Germany is in great difficulty, between the automotive crisis and energy supply problems: “I believe that in the current situation, faced with many new challenges, it should be reformed: but not to encourage social spending , but rather investments”.
The relationship with Trump
Also not to be underestimated is the analysis that the former chancellor makes of the new American president who, Merkel recalls, was “obsessed with German cars on the streets of New York”, did not hate it “but for him I embodied Germany“. “For Donald Trump there are never “win win” situations, where both partners in an agreement obtain advantages – explained the former chancellor – For him either one or the other must obtain a profit. It’s an idea I don’t share. I think we have made many deals in the world, which are beneficial to both sides. I believe in the power of compromise, unlike Trump. The most important thing is to cooperate with Trump, as partners and representatives of a country, free from fear and self-confident, defending our own interests, in my case the German and European ones, as clearly as he defends his.” However, he also remembers his attraction to Putin about The Donald: “In the following years, I had the impression that politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits fascinated him.”
The fall of Berlusconi
Many have accused Angela Merkel of having essentially caused the fall of Silvio Berlusconi in 2011. According to the Wall Street Journal from Berlin he would even telephone Giorgio Napolitano to ask for the Knight’s head. The former chancellor “categorically” denies it and actually recalls having worked with Berlusconi “more amicably than many thought”. “He always worked to reach common European compromises,” Merkel explained. “I have never meddled in the internal affairs of a friendly country. And I had never heard of this variant. It was also said that a press conference of Nicolas Sarkozy and mine would have contributed to Berlusconi’s fall. I don’t believe it. It is absolutely not possible for one foreign head of government to cause the fall of another. This always has to do with the internal facts of a country.”