Angela Merkel’s legacy under fire as she publishes memoirs

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By Sarah Marsh and Thomas Escritt

BERLIN (Reuters) – Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel describes her dealings with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during her 16 years in power in her new memoir, which comes as her legacy is under fire in light of today’s crises.

In excerpts released ahead of the book’s publication on Nov. 26, Merkel justifies her decision to push back against offering Ukraine future membership of NATO at the defence alliance’s 2008 summit in Bucharest – which her critics say may have dissuaded Russia from invading Ukraine.

Even the statement made at the summit that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually join NATO was a “battle cry” to Putin, wrote Merkel, who served four terms in office.

“He later said to me: ‘You won’t be Chancellor forever. And then they’ll become a member of NATO. And I want to prevent that’,” she wrote in the excerpts published late on Wednesday by German weekly Die Zeit.

Merkel’s memoir, entitled “Freedom: Memories 1954-2021”, will be published in more than 30 countries on Nov. 26. She will launch the book in the United States a week later at a Washington event with former President Barack Obama, with whom she forged a close political relationship.

Obama’s successor Trump, who earlier this month won another term in office, is one of the men at whom Germany’s first female leader takes aim in the book.

Merkel sought advice from the pope on dealing with Trump when he was first elected U.S. president, hoping to find ways of convincing a man she saw as having a property developer’s winner-or-loser mentality not to quit the Paris climate accords, she writes.

“He saw everything from the perspective of the property developer he was before entering politics,” she wrote. “Each parcel of land could only be sold once, and if he didn’t get it someone else did. That’s how he saw the world.”

Pope Francis, when Merkel asked him, in general terms, for advice on dealing with people “with fundamentally different views”, immediately understood she was referring to Trump and his desire to quit the climate accords, she wrote.

“Bend, bend, bend, but make sure it doesn’t break,” he told Merkel, according to her account.

During Trump’s presidency, Merkel’s frequent invocations of values like freedom and human rights led to some dubbing her the true “leader of the free world” – a moniker traditionally reserved for U.S. presidents.

“She was a person with integrity and without vanity, which is unusual for a politician,” said Torsten Oppelland, professor of political science at Jena University.

Written before Trump’s reelection, the book expresses the “heartfelt hope” that Vice President Kamala Harris would defeat her rival.

LEGACY UNDER FIRE

During her four consecutive terms in office, Merkel steered Germany and Europe through the global financial crisis, the euro zone debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

But she has since faced criticism for allowing Germany to become ever more dependent on cheap Russian gas and Chinese trade, even following Russia’s forcible annexation of Crimea and industry warnings against over-reliance on China.

Critics also blame the rise of the far right and high energy costs in part on her decisions to open Germany’s borders to refugees and to phase out nuclear power.

She lacked vision, failing to take the reforms necessary to ensure the future strength of Europe’s largest economy which is now grappling with a crisis in its economic model, they say.

“During her tenure, Merkel was widely seen as a highly effective politician and a safe pair of hands,” said Marcel Dirsus of Kiel University’s Institute for Security Policy.

“Since leaving power, many Germans view her legacy much more critically. Either because her policies are seen to have failed or because her inaction is perceived to have worked on many of Germany’s existing problems.”

Still, he said, many of Merkel’s positions like her stance on Russia were consensus German positions across the political spectrum – current Chancellor Olaf Scholz was her finance minister during her last four years in power.

In recent years however her own conservative party has distanced itself from its former leader, who has herself expressed little regret about her actions and largely kept a low profile since leaving office.