Angela Merkel had barely retired when things went wrong in Europe. Some see a causal relationship in this. Had she still been there, Putin would not have attacked Ukraine, we miss her, she would have been much needed now, she is the woman Vladimir Putin can handle – according to numerous reactions, especially from female admirers of the German former chancellor . About the NATO summit in Brussels, former Speaker of the House Gerdi Verbeet said on TV that she would have liked to have had ‘Angela’ there.
Painful questions
The Merkel-Sehnsucht is no surprise. When she said goodbye, I wrote ‘that we may miss her enormously as a balance artist’. I have always had respect for Merkel. But Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in retrospect raises painful questions.
The claim that the Ukraine war would not have happened if Merkel had still been there, is a blow in the air because unprovable, so gratuitous. Rather, it is the other way around: has its policy not contributed to the emergence of the current crisis?
biting tweet
On the day of the invasion, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, defense minister under Merkel, sent out a caustic tweet about Germany’s historic failure. It hasn’t done enough to deter Putin. “We have forgotten the lesson of Schmidt and Kohl that negotiation always comes first, but at the same time we must be militarily so strong that non-negotiation is not an option for the opposing side,” the former minister wrote. It was a reproach to herself, but even more so to her former boss Merkel, one of the chancellors who came after Schmidt and Kohl.
Merkel slackened the armed forces, did nothing about dependence on Russian gas, continued to balance between sanctions and cooperation with Putin even after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and opted for total dialogue.
Not that she didn’t know what kind of meat she was dealing with with Russia’s leader. After an incident where Putin proletively intimidated her with his black labrador, she said: ‘I see why he had to do this – to prove he’s a man. He is afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.’ After the Crimea, she stated she was not sure whether Putin was still in touch with reality. “He lives in another world.”
Stubborn Refusal
Each and every one of them accurate descriptions. She saw that a leader had risen in Europe, preaching a national rebirth, driving dissenters underground at home, threatening neighboring countries and drawing the nation into its holy indignation at the godless, decadent, treacherous West.
She saw it, yet she remained hopeful that Putin would not go to open war, stubbornly refused to draw a line by cutting the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and failed to update military deterrence. It was her cautious nature, but she also stood very much for modern Germany, which likes to put morality above power.
But those morals have now shriveled into a shameful badge of incompetence and tarnished conscience in the face of the power with which Putin is trying to crush the Ukrainians. Reality has arrived in Berlin with a thump and Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to make military catch-up. It is a correction, and you only correct when something has gone wrong, under Merkel.
cretology
Some understanding is in order. In 2014 I wrote that we all admire war hero Churchill but are often more of a Chamberlain in our hearts, who went to great lengths to avoid war. So is Merkel. Only her cautious balancing policy did not work in the end. Anyone who believes that Europe has failed to resist Putin’s provocations for too long and thus gave him room to go further and further should be honest and recognize its part in this failure. Because Merkel was Europe.
I have the idea that the women who identify with her as role models have difficulty recognizing this and, from a forced feminine perspective, fall into sloganeering. I would like to recommend them: also look at the Ukrainian perspective. Then Merkel has probably done more harm than good in relation to Putin.