Angela Merkel’s popularity reached its peak when she stepped down as head of the German government a year ago after spending 16 years in office. But his image was rapidly eroded by the war in Ukraine and his alleged permissiveness with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Since leaving the chancellorship on December 8, 2021, Merkel, 68, has live away from the spotlight. The one who has long been considered the most powerful woman in the world now works on her memoirs and enjoys the occasional television series.
When he was at the head of the largest European economy, enjoyed widespread support and was known to be a strong believer in Western liberal values.
The offensive in Ukraine, launched on February 24 by the Russian president, broke their aura and only 23% of Germans now she wants him back in power, according to a late November Civey Institute poll.
“A year later, the world is on fire, Russia has invaded the Ukraine, gas and petrol prices are skyrocketing and Germany fears winter,” explains an old confidant of Merkel, journalist Alexander Osang of the magazine The Spiegel.
Angela Merkel he went from role model to culpritas a crisis manager due to crisis,” he adds.
The Russian embassy is located near the offices granted to the former chancellor. Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Berliners have regularly left banners and flowers at the doors of the diplomatic mission.
The first woman to reach the top of power in Germany was accused, in this new context, to have been compliant with the Russian president and to have explored the country’s dependence on Moscow’s hydrocarbons.
One of the decisions that is scolded is having supported the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline projecteven after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
Faced with criticism, Merkel broke her silence and had to justify herself in several interviews with trusted journalists.
For Hedwig Richter, professor of modern history at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, Merkel’s loss of face was “exceptional” and embodies the political misjudgments of an entire generation.
The governments led by Merkel “have considered it realistic to put values such as human rights and climate protection behind them. But now reality strikes again“, analyze.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holds Merkel largely responsible for NATO’s rejection to Ukraine’s candidacy in 2008.
Zelensky invited the former foreign minister to Bucha, a town outside Kiev where Russian forces were accused of committing massacres and atrocities in April. His goal, he said, was Merkel to see “what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to”.
The energy crisis triggered by the escalation of sanctions and reprisals after the start of the war further escalated tempers against Merkel.
In the public debate, “Merkel was tied to this war and was certainly to blame for the lack of gassaid Nico Fried, who covered German government activities during Merkel’s four terms in office for Stern magazine.
“The question is what is left of Merkel after 16 years, if her historical portrait is already fading before it is framed,” he says.
According to Richter, Merkel’s results They include his refugee policy, which allowed in more than a million asylum seekers after the crackdown on the Arab Spring early last decade.
But Merkel made two serious miscalculations, she analyzes.
On the one hand, “the incapacity of the republic [alemana] from defend yourselfThe researcher underlines the lack of investment in Defense, which implied dependence on the United States.
On the other hand, the fact of having neglected the environmental issue, “closely linked to Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels”.
“Merkel governments have horribly neglected these two issues,” he insists.
In her latest interviews, Merkel has defended her legacy. You said you used the Nord Stream pipeline as a bargaining chip to secure it Putin will respect the 2015 Minsk accordswho tried to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel also revealed that she promised US President Joe Biden last year to denounce the pipeline deal in case Russia invades Ukraine.
Osang, the journalist of Der Spiegel, underlines the irony that it was “just Putin, who [Merkel] known so well and for so long, with all its tricks and lies and boasts,” which tarnished his reputation.
AFP agency
pp
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.