It’s a best-seller before it’s even released. The reason is the long-awaited Memoirs of Angela Merkel entitled “Freedom: Memories 1954-2021” (Freiheit: Erinnerungen 1954-2021).
“1954-1954: 1954-1954”
She wrote them without consultants, historians or ghost-writers, simply with the input of her close collaborator, Beate Bauman. On their own, they also chose the quality and traditional publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch in Cologne.
“Anngela Merkel assumed the responsibility of governing Germany for 16 years, held the country’s helm in numerous crises, and shaped German and international politics and society with her actions and attitudes. But of course, Angela Merkel was not born a chancellor,” he writes in the introductory note to the highly anticipated book, which will be released on November 26 in thirty languages, including Greek.
Until then, its full contents remain an unsealed secret. It is a book that, as stated in the introductory note, “sheds light on the way decisions are made in our time and offers a unique glimpse into the inner workings of power.
And it is a definitive plea for Freedom.”
Publication des Mémoires d'Angela Merkel ("Freiheit" : "Liberté") le 25 novembre : un événement très attendu en 🇩🇪 et ailleurs. pic.twitter.com/CqjhbpX2yb
— François Delattre (@Amb_Delattre) October 21, 2024
Merkel’s revelations on Putin, Trump and Greece
The first leaks in the German press are revealing. Faces, prime ministers, decision makers, crises, defining moments in modern international, European and German history.
Everything and everyone comes, goes and is analysed in the book of about 700 pages under the “Merkel doctrine”, with realism and diplomacy. As Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, she experienced almost everyone up close and personal: Putin, Trump, Obama, Obama, Erdogan and all the Greek prime ministers of the hard times of the crisis.
All the hard times of the last few years of the crisis and the hard times of the hard times.
Many references are also reportedly made to the crucial 2015 under Alexis Tsipras and the final decision for Greece to remain in the eurozone. So we await November 26 for the pages concerning Greece.
The points that the German media are focusing on these days, with the Zeit newspaper being the first to pre-publish excerpts, are mainly about German-Russian relations, his frequent contacts with Vladimir Putin (which could be a separate book) and Donald Trump.
Putin’s dog and the man with the most satellites making political decisions
He also goes into detail about the management of successive crises: from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, to the international financial crisis, to the Euro crisis, to the refugee crisis and the pandemic.
From the crisis to the pandemic and the pandemic to the pandemic and the pandemic flu,
to the pandemic and the pandemic crisis.
Of Putin, he writes that “he was constantly on the lookout in case someone treated him badly. He was always ready to enjoy power games with his dog and make others wait for him.”
A reference to Putin’s famous black labrador moment in the Kremlin, during an official meeting, and while Putin was aware of Merkel’s fear of dogs. As for Trump, she remembers admiring Putin and seeing everything as “contracting”.
About Elon Musk, who is now jumping into politics alongside Donald Trump, she expresses concern that a businessman who has the most satellites around the earth will be making policy decisions.
Sta per uscire l’autobiografia di Angela Merkel. Si intitola “Freiheit” (Libertà) e arriva in libreria in un momento di profonda crisi della Germania. Il libro esce il 26 novembre e in Italia lo pubblica @RizzoliLibri
— ROBERTO ZICHITTELLA (@ROBZIK) November 19, 2024
L’ex Cancelliera oggi in prima pagina su @Tagesspiegel pic.twitter.com/jC8IoqhKMQ
He insists on Ukraine and Nord Stream
In her book, Merkel defends the “no” she said in 2008 to a quick accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO because, she claims, she knew what that would mean for Russia and Putin.
She justifies her refusal as a means of protection against “Putin’s aggression as he says”. She even reveals that Putin had told her: “You won’t be chancellor forever. And then, they will become members of NATO. And that is exactly what I want to prevent.”
On what her political opponents accuse her of a pro-Russian stance regarding the Nord Stream pipeline network, she believes that supporting this project was the right thing to do given that German industry desperately needed cheap Russian gas.
However, what is coming out about Ukraine and Russia is already causing a reaction. Former Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnik, speaking to Spiegel, called Merkel’s foreign policy, especially with regard to Ukraine and Russia, a “failure”.
“It would have been a sign of strength, not weakness, if she had at least admitted the fiasco in her memoirs, so that similar disasters could be avoided in the future.”
Criticism of current German policy
As for Angela Merkel herself, she seems to have been planning this memoir moment for a long time, thoughtfully and quietly. And she seems to be enjoying it.
Of course, she hadn’t counted on it coinciding with a period of early elections in the middle of winter. In the only interview he gave to Spiegel before the book was published, he comments on the failure of the Social Democrat-Green-Liberal coalition and accuses Scholz and Lindner of male immaturity.
“Männer!” (Männer!), he exclaims after a question about the two men’s dispute. He also finds it incompatible with the chancellor’s role as head of a “constitutional body,” as he puts it, to rage in front of the cameras against Lindner, Lt. Finance, who was dismissed after a rift over the budget led to the break-up of the coalition government.
For Merkel herself, “typical male behavior” is “taking things personally. In politics this should be avoided as much as possible.”
As she observes: “As chancellor you have to face difficult circumstances. You feel a lot of emotions, but it is better to shout with the wall in front of you than in front of the German public.”
But she also indirectly takes shots at her party, the Christian Democrats of Friedrich Murch (a fierce internal party opponent in the past), for their strict line on immigration.
Reading her words again, one comes to one conclusion: that she has no regrets about that historic “Wir schaffen das” (We will make it), which opened the German border to hundreds of thousands of refugees.
