“Without democracy there is no freedom or rule of law”

Decision to stop Ukraine from joining NATO

There are many who consider it a historical mistake that Merkel prevented Ukraine and Georgia from obtaining candidate status at the decisive 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest. The former chancellor is skeptical that both countries will receive greater security: “I found it delusional to assume that the MAP status (Alliance of Advice and Support for Countries Interested in Joining) would provide Ukraine and Georgia with protection against Putin’s aggression. ” “This situation would have such a deterrent effect that Putin would simply accept the events without doing anything,” Merkel writes. NATO intervention

This was as unthinkable as the Bundestag’s mandate for German participation in the event of conflict.

But Merkel admits that the agreement ultimately reached was unsatisfactory for both sides: “The fact that Georgia and Ukraine did not get any commitment for MAP status was a negative for their expectations. For Putin, That NATO also promised them a general commitment to “their accession was a yes to NATO membership for both countries, a declaration of war.”

However, the former chancellor is convinced that he did the right thing and assures that he saw the risks regarding the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. “With such entanglement Russian military formations This had not been previously seen in any candidate for NATO membership. What’s more, only a minority of the Ukrainian population supported it. country joining nato” Merkel recalls.

“I found it a gross negligence to discuss the MAP situation for Ukraine and Georgia without analyzing Putin’s perspective on things. Since Putin became president of his country in 2000, he has made every possible effort to bring Russia back He wanted to retaliate.” The fact is that the United States emerged victorious from the Cold War, it wanted Russia to remain an indispensable pole in a multipolar world after the end of the Cold War.” The former chancellor and says that “the nuclear russiaWorld power, is a reality. “It was and is geopolitically inevitable, if only because, along with the United States, France, Great Britain, and China, it is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power.”

Merkel described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a man who was always on guard to avoid being treated badly and was always ready to attack, playing power with dogs and others.” “, you may shake your head at this. But. Russia was not erased from the map“. What was clear to Merkel in Bucharest was that “in NATO we had no common strategy to deal with Russia.”

Lack of chemistry with Donald Trump

During his first meeting with US President Donald Trump in March 2017, he asked him about his relationship with Putin. “Obviously, I was very impressed by the Russian President. In later years, I got the impression that politicians with specific qualities autocratic and dictatorial “He fascinated them,” says Merkel. His relationship with the populist and misogynist Trump was never easy.” Trump on the emotional level, me on the factual level. Trump looked at everything from the perspective of a real estate developer who wanted the land. For him all countries competed with each other and the success of one was the failure of the other. “I did not believe that everyone’s prosperity could be enhanced through cooperation,” recalls the defender of the multilateral world order.

In her memoirs, written before the North American elections, Merkel made it clear that she wanted to win. kamala harrisas they also did Hillary Clinton On the race with Trump in 2016: “I followed Hillary Clinton and her campaign closely and I would have liked if he had won.” relationships with Barack Obama

They ended up as friends and it will be the former North American president who will accompany them during the presentation Freedom In the United States.

refugee crisis

Another decision of Merkel’s in September 2015 that was controversial and is still controversial was to open the doors to refugees: “At the time, I had the feeling that, otherwise, I would jeopardize the credibility of the speeches about our great values. For example, in Europe and human dignity, the idea of ​​installing water cannons on the German border seemed horrifying to me,” he answers in the interview. der spiegel,

It is loyal to that decision, but also acknowledges that it has always taken the fear of excessive irregular migration of populations or jihadist terrorism very seriously. “If you go to a public party and you’re afraid that someone is going to pull out a knife, that’s very disturbing, even if that threat doesn’t exist at that moment. But there’s also another group in the population that is afraid.” that we will become extremely intolerant and harshAs Chancellor, I have to take both groups into account,” he assures and reminds us that we must never “let terrorists take away our values.” freedom and human dignityBecause then they would have won.

Childhood and youth in the GDR

Although the book appears to reflect two lives, it is, in fact, one, as Merkel herself admits, but the political Merkel, that of freedom, cannot be understood without first, communist Germany.

Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany, but her father, a Lutheran pastor, decided to move to the Democratic Republic to serve as their pastor when she was very young. He writes that he had a happy childhood and that his mother was always there for him whenever he needed him, but “life in the gdr It was a constant life on the edge. No matter how carefree you start the day, everything can change in a matter of seconds and your survival can be in danger if you cross the limits. political boundariesThen, the state struck ruthlessly. Finding where those limits were is the true art of living.”

The title of his memoirs well reflects the desire for freedom that was sorely lacking during his 35 years under East German rule: “What is freedom for me? This question has occupied my entire life. Politically From, of course, because freedom is needed democratic conditionsWithout democracy there is no freedom, no rule of law, no protection of human rights. But this question also concerns me on another level. To me, freedom means knowing where my limits are and walking up to them. For me, freedom is not to stop learning, not to stand still, to move forward, even after leaving politics.”

first female chancellor

After this he entered politics fall of berlin wallOn November 9, 1989. Her mentor, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, called her a girl, but she freed herself and stood up to him during the secret accounts scandal and eventually became the head of a party of Catholic and Western men. , she, a woman, Protestant and from the East. And she became the first female chancellor, although she never flew the flag nor of feminism Nor does it originate from the East.

On September 18, 2005, he won the election by a slim margin against the Social Democratic Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, who refused to accept his defeat and asked in a televised debate the same night of the election: “Do you seriously believe that my In this situation, would the party accept Mrs. Merkel’s negotiating proposal that she would like to become Federal Chancellor?

And then, turning to Merkel, in a defiant and insulting manner, he said: “You will not be able to form a coalition with my Social Democratic Party under your leadership, that’s clear, don’t fool yourself.” Merkel recalls, “I kept telling myself: Don’t get into fights with others, because then you’ll start getting into fights too.” I was fully aware that I was experiencing something special, but it was all happening unconsciously. I highly doubt that Gerhard Schröder would have behaved the same way with a man“, Sentence.

On 22 November 2005, Angela Merkel became Chancellor and, contrary to Schröder’s predictions, she did so while still in office as Chancellor. Grand alliance with social democrats“Now it was my turn. I was 51 years old.” A new phase in his life began, the Merkel era, which would not end until 16 years later.