In Germany, on Tuesday (November 26), the memoirs of former Chancellor Angela Merkel will be published. In the book entitled Freiheit (Freedom), she recalls her childhood and youth in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), but also the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which gave her life a completely new direction. On more than 700 pages, it also offers a behind-the-scenes look at world politics, while describing meetings with such people as Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Pope Francis. It also explains why she was against Ukraine’s entry into NATO in 2008.
Photo: Profimedia/EPA/Ian Langsdon
Donald Trump kisses Angela Merkel during the G7 summit in France in August 2019. However, relations between the two have actually been strained.
Merkel, who turned 70 in July, spent half her life in socialism, pursuing a scientific career, and the other half in a unified Germany.
Already in 1990, she joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and was elected to the Bundestag, a year later she won her first ministerial seat, and in November 2005 she became the head of the government, where she remained for 16 long years.
During them, she was ranked among the five most powerful people in the world. She participated in the formation of European politics and led Germany through several crises.
She wrote the memoirs, which will be published in more than 30 countries, with her former adviser Beata Baumann. “They offer a deep insight into the thinking and actions of one of the most important statesmen of our time,” said publisher Kerstin Glebová.
Previews published in advance by the German weekly Die Zeit hint at what readers will learn in the new book.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Merkel’s memories of the important summit of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) in April 2008 in Bucharest will be of interest. Part of the agenda was whether to grant Ukraine and Georgia the status of a candidate country and start accession negotiations with them.
Both Germany and France blocked this plan at the time, which many politicians criticize today. For example, Polish President Andrzej Duda recently declared for Republika TV that if they had not rejected Ukraine, an armed conflict would not have broken out there, therefore he considers it a “tragedy” from today’s point of view.
How does the former chancellor perceive it? “I understood the desire of Central and Eastern European countries to become NATO members as quickly as possible,” she wrote in the book, but admitted that she considered it too much of a risk.
“Admission of a new member should not only bring more security to it, but also to NATO,” she reasoned. She was particularly concerned about the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea (Russia annexed it in March 2014), which Moscow was guaranteed by an international treaty.
“Such a connection with Russian military structures has not yet occurred with any of the candidates. At that time, moreover, only a minority of the Ukrainian population supported the country’s membership in NATO,” Die Zeit magazine quoted from her work. According to her, it is an illusion if anyone thinks that the status of a NATO candidate country would protect Ukraine and Georgia from Putin’s aggression.
Photo: Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Angela Merkel Angela Merkel’s memoir Freiheit (Freedom) will be published in more than 30 countries around the world.
It raises another important question for consideration. “Would it then be conceivable in a serious case that NATO member states would respond militarily – with material and troops – and intervene? Would it be conceivable that, as chancellor, I would ask the German Bundestag for such a mandate for our army and get a majority for it?” asks Merkel in her memoirs.
At the same time, however, he admits that even the solution they adopted in Bucharest did not bring peace. The fact that they were denied the status of a candidate country was perceived by both states as a failure of hopes. However, the fact that they received the promise of membership in NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin still understood as a declaration of war.
Photo: SITA/AP, Ryan Remiorz
APTOPIX Putin Merkel G20 Germany Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July 2017.
As for the head of the Kremlin, who apparently deliberately scared her with his large black labrador at a meeting in Sochi in 2007, because he knew she was afraid of dogs, the chancellor mainly recalled his appearance at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, where he gave a rather angry speech.
“He presented himself as I experienced him – as someone who was always on the lookout, just so he wouldn’t be mistreated. He was always ready to play power games, including the dog or making others wait for him,” she added.
Merkel also enjoyed her time with US President Donald Trump. She is convinced that he was fascinated by Putin and politicians with autocratic tendencies in general. According to her, it was very difficult to negotiate with him, because his goal was not to reach an agreement. He is said to have looked at everything through the eyes of a real estate businessman.
“He took it as all countries competing with each other, while the success of one was the failure of the other. He did not believe that cooperation could contribute to the well-being of all,” Merkel recalled in the book.
In an interview with Spiegel magazine a few days ago, she stated that the more people debated with Trump, the more he wanted to come out as the winner. “You can’t talk to him. Every meeting is a competition for him: you or me,” she summed up.
For the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, she also added an anecdote from the meeting of the G7 group in Canada in June 2018. After the quarrels that occurred there, Trump allegedly threw two candies on her table with the words: “Here, Angela, so you can’t say that I he didn’t give you anything.”
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
