The News
Angela Merkel has set out to secure her reputation in a 700-page memoir in which the former German chancellor defends her 16 years in office. Critics increasingly believe that her leadership led Germany to chronic underinvestment, an underfunded military, and the growth of the far right.
Once heralded as the most powerful woman in the world, Merkel has seen her legacy tarnished in Germany, as much of the blame for the country’s current economic malaise and geopolitical uncertainty has fallen on her.
In her book, Freedom, Merkel also describes her tumultuous relationship with US President-elect Donald Trump, who declined to shake her hand in front of cameras in 2017. “He is the challenge for the world, especially for multilateralism,” Merkel said in an interview with Der Spiegel. “What awaits us is no triviality.”
SIGNALS
Merkel’s self-defense fails to convince critics
Since Time Magazine declared Angela Merkel 2015’s person of the year, her reputation has taken a nose dive. Almost every big decision Merkel took put Germany and Europe in a worse position, The Economist argued. In her memoir, Merkel defends her government’s decision to increase Germany’s dependency on Russian gas, saying alternative energy sources would have been too expensive; an argument the Financial Times described as a “baffling” refusal to admit her mistake. She also stands by her decision to keep Germany’s borders open during the 2015 refugee crisis, which critics say contributed to the far right’s rise. Others are more forgiving, with one El País columnist noting that Europe has been “running around like a headless chicken” ever since Merkel left office.
Merkel describes Trump as emotional salesman with a penchant for autocrats
US President-elect Donald Trump looms large in Merkel’s biography. She writes that he approached negotiations during his first term at an “emotional level” and a winner-take-all instinct. When Merkel sought advice from Pope Francis on how to deal with the Republican’s threats to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, the Catholic leader told her: “Bend, bend bend, but make sure it doesn’t break.” Merkel also writes that Trump seemed “fascinated” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “In the years that followed, I had the impression that politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits captivated him,” she writes.
Merkel reverses stance on Germany’s debt brake
Merkel reverses her position on Germany’s debt brake, the constitutional limit on federal borrowing that has become a central political fault line in the months leading up to national elections in February. The debt brake was implemented under Merkel’s leadership, with the aim of protecting future generations from ballooning debt. Critics have argued that it has led to chronic underinvestment in Germany’s infrastructure and military, and the policy led to the collapse of the government after coalition parties disagreed on whether to suspend the rule to fund Ukraine. Merkel writes in her memoir that while debt should not be used to fund social spending, the rule should be relaxed to allow for investments in the future.