Nuclear phase-out, opening of borders, euro rescue, corona lockdown - the list of Angela Merkel's wrong decisions is long

CICERO Is the CDU still her party? Angela Merkel's 70th birthday -Merkel's balance sheet - thought from the end Nuclear phase-out, opening of borders, euro rescue, corona lockdown - the list of Angela Merkel's wrong decisions is long. Without them, the AfD would probably not exist at all. Self-criticism has never been heard from the ex-Chancellor. Today she turns 70. BY HANS-HERMANN TIEDJE on July 17, 2024 8 min When Angela Merkel became Chancellor in 2005, Germany was economically strong, had the safest nuclear power plants in the world, a reasonably punctual railway and an accepted military service. Ms. Merkel served as Chancellor for 16 years. Now she is turning 70. On November 26, in time for the Christmas season, her memoirs are due to be published, entitled "Freedom". A topic for which former Federal President Joachim Gauck is more competent. Merkel's political work was different - what is her balance sheet? In 2011, she buried nuclear power, which she had always advocated, in Germany. The reason: a tsunami off Japan that destroyed a nuclear power plant that was built too deep there. Non sequitur, the Latinist would have said, but there was no way to ask him. Merkel also mothballed German conscription in 2011 and disarmed the Bundeswehr. The target that all NATO states must use two percent of GDP for armaments was missed in every year of her term in office. In 2003, two years before taking office, Merkel publicly complained at the CDU federal party conference about the "abuse of asylum law" and called for the "control and limitation of immigration". Merkel said literally: "Anything else will not be accepted by the population." So she knew what she was doing when she opened the door to uncontrolled mass migration in 2015. According to the assessment of respected constitutional lawyers such as the former Minister of Defense Rupert Scholz (CDU), this was a blatant and deliberate violation of the Dublin Agreements, which are still valid today (according to which an asylum application is only processed once, in the country in which the asylum seeker arrives). It was also a breach of the Basic Law, Article 16a (politically persecuted people are entitled to asylum). And it was a violation of the oath of office to uphold German laws and to avert harm from the German people. Merkel's nuclear phase-out The CDU/CSU and FDP joined in in 2011 What remains? Her unspeakable sentence "I can't let them all drown." I don't know of anyone who has ever demanded that of Ms. Merkel. Realistic assessments came from others, for example from Gauck: "Our hearts are wide, but our possibilities are limited." Merkel could also have gotten some advice from former Interior Minister Otto Schily (who advocated reception centers in North Africa, but was defeated by his SPD), contemporary historian Walter Laqueur ("The Last Days of Europe") or simply from Peter Scholl-Latour: "Those who take in half of Calcutta are not helping Calcutta, but are becoming Calcutta themselves." Merkel did not challenge any of this, or she did not care. All she said was: "We can do it." A phrase with far-reaching consequences. For Germany and Europe. There are knife attacks almost every day On the "security of Israel", which was so dear to Ms. Merkel's heart. She, the Leo Baeck Prize winner, even declared this to be a German matter of state. Good. But what is the use of that in view of the mass anti-Semitism that has immigrated? Unfortunately, Germany has not only changed for the better as a result of this population import. There are knife attacks almost every day, and larger massacres keep happening, just remember the one in 2016 at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz (13 dead, 67 seriously and severely injured). Regarding Putin. Mrs. Merkel either, as her former foreign minister, today's Federal President Steinmeier, admitted, "also" fell for Russia's rulers, or she analyzed Putin correctly in time, i.e. saw through him. Then she would have deceived the German population, in any case she would have had to adopt a different policy in time. But a mea culpa gesture is not to be expected from Merkel; I cannot remember any mistake that she would have admitted. Although: she did know Russia, she even spoke Russian. But perhaps her long-time personal military advisor, Brigadier General Erich Vad, is not entirely innocent of her false image of Russia. Many people consider him to be the dumbest general in the Bundeswehr. His judgments on Putin's plans and the course of the Ukraine war usually turned out to be wrong. Merkel's cynical attitude to fundamental rights Which brings us to Greece. Its government cheated its way into the Eurozone with tricks and falsified balance sheets. So far, so bad. There was every reason to throw the Greeks out of the currency union. Thanks to Merkel, they stayed in. Her reasoning: "If the Euro fails, Europe fails." Aha. The deeper meaning of this statement is about as true as the sentence "If there are no bananas, the monkeys die." On the corona pandemic. Merkel suddenly installed a management and control body with the state premiers, which ruled bypassed the Bundestag and forced the population to impose massive restrictions. For good reason, such a regime is still not provided for in the German constitution; Merkel simply did it. Was it a necessity? No alternative? If so: How could Sweden get through the pandemic better than Germany, largely without restrictions and with open restaurants? Fear of Merkel's migration Europe drove the British into Brexit Merkel's balance sheet. Her commitment to Greece and, above all, her illegal open door for migrants of all kinds - both of which are by no means without alternatives - became the DNA of the AfD. Without Angela Merkel's work, this party would not exist in its current form. On August 9, 1987, Franz-Josef Strauß uttered the now famous sentence: "There must be no democratically legitimate party to the right of the CDU/CSU." A maxim carved in linguistic marble, confidently ignored by Merkel. Perhaps she did not even know the name Strauß at the time, because at the time she was a physicist and not a politician, still working at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry in East Berlin. Today the AfD is stable at 17 to 20 percent, in Central Germany at 35 percent and more. In contrast to the CDU, this party has every reason to be grateful to Angela Merkel. Its record also includes another responsibility, namely that for Brexit. Fear of Merkel's migration Europe drove many Britons to the side of the Eurosceptics. Nigel Farage successfully warned about German conditions. And now? The British are gone, and we Germans are paying more into the EU coffers because the United Kingdom, another major net contributor, has been lost. "There are dictatorial elements in democracy" Much has been written about Merkel's life. She is as little to blame for her time in the GDR as her parents' home. Her political career came out of nowhere: she took advantage of her opportunities. Principles were only a hindrance. If you have no principles, you have no problems. Her memoirs are likely to sell well. Many people are puzzled as to how Merkel wants to reinterpret her political record of damage as a success story, but the Germans have followed her for 16 years, for whatever reason, and would have voted for her for the fifth time instead of Armin Laschet in the 2021 federal election. The Chancellor (actor) Olaf Scholz would then not even exist. So what is this woman's secret? She is scandal-free, unspectacular, always in tune with the spirit of the times. Life is better with the mainstream. His predecessor Helmut Kohl pushed through all the big projects against bitter resistance: the NATO rearmament, the euro, reunification, just as he wanted it. In comparison, Merkel remains more of a footnote in world history. But her diamond will remain: "You know me." She regularly misjudged the end, or she didn't have a good ending in mind. Do we really know her? Oskar Lafontaine already had his opinion in 2008. On "Anne Will" he explained Merkel to the then Bavarian Prime Minister Günther Beckstein as follows: "I want to enlighten you: you have elected a convinced young communist as chancellor. Do you even realize that? Mrs. Merkel was an FDJ functionary for propaganda and agitation. Only a convinced young communist could do that. And she was allowed to study in Moscow. They were just loyalists. So: you (Beckstein, ed.) have achieved integration. Be proud of it!” Merkel today: She avoids being close to her party, the CDU. If the CDU is still her party. She has contributed significantly to the contamination of the term “right” because she allowed it. Anyone who comes out as “right” is usually cancelled. It used to be an honorable term for the conservatives, who tend to be right-wing. But the Chancellor, who came from the CDU, prefers to give speeches to actors like Ulrich Matthes or Greens like Jürgen Trittin. Why party leader Merz is planning a reception for Merkel’s 70th birthday is probably only known to General Secretary Linnemann. - “Keep your distance from a black-green coalition!” What else do we remember about Merkel? Her claim to herself: Respice finem or in German: “Think everything from the end.” If she meant that seriously, she regularly misjudged the end, or she did not have a good ending in mind. We will not find the answer in her memoirs either. Hopefully she sticks to the facts. When Thilo Sarrazin published the mega-seller “Germany is abolishing itself” in 2010, Mrs Merkel judged it “not helpful.” Afterwards it turned out that she had not even read the book.