Angela Merkel: The memoirs “fire” of the former chancellor – What Does It Say about Putin, Ukraine and Trump

Or he found a way to come back after years in the news. ‘Freedom: Memories 1954-2021″ her former chancellor describes in 700 pages events and persons who determine today’s world developments. Former chancellor Angela Merkel’s memoirs will be released next week in Germany and 30 other countries, but they are already causing discussions. In her book the once “iron lady of Europe” admits that she deliberately delayed Ukraine’s accession course to the EU, as she was Vladimir Putin’s interlocutor and had concerns about any retaliation from the Russian president. As for newly elected president of the US, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel is in her book “catapult”. Putin and Ukraine Although Angela Merkel characterizes Vladimir Putin as “managing” and “vengeful”, he acknowledges that the Russian president had some serious arguments at the notorious Munich Security Conference in 2007. At the time, in the Bavarian capital the Russian leader had moved on to a clear statement of Russian foreign policy after the Cold War, focusing on the need for international solidarity. In her memoirs, now, the former chancellor points out that Vladimir Putin’s fear that Kiev could join NATO, after her own withdrawal from power, helped pave the way for Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Without clarifying when she made the comments, Angela Merkel says Vladimir Putin had told her: “You will not be chancellor forever. And then the Ukrainians become NATO members. And I want to prevent that”! Angela Merkel particularly criticizes Eastern European leaders because, in her view, they pretend that their giant neighbor (i.e. Russia) could simply be sidelined. “You could find all this childish and reprehensible, you could shake your head. But you will not make Russia disappear from the map,” she writes features in her book. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier Angela Merkel “fits” Donald Trump The former Chancellor of Germany is not… given to Donald Trump. As she reports, her first mistake was treating him as being “totally normal”, but quickly understood who he was dealing with. She remembers their first meeting in 2017 at the Oval Office, where she tried to humiliate her, refusing to shake her hand in front of television cameras. “I whispered to him that we should shake hands again,” he writes. “As soon as the words left my mouth, I shook my head on myself. How could I forget that Trump knew exactly what he was doing… He wanted to give people something to talk about his behavior, while I had behaved like I was talking to someone completely normal.” Angela Merkel notes that she found an American president who reacted “sponsibly”, who did not listen to her arguments except to “turn them into new criticisms”. As he observes, “solving problems did not seem to be his objective”. About the Trump – Putin relationship Referring to the Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin relationship, in her memoirs the former chancellor says: “Trump was obviously fascinated with the Russian president”, to supplement that “in the following years, I had the impression that leaders with authoritarian and dictatorial tendencies, exercised a certain charm on him.” Closing the “Donald Trump chapter”, Angela Merkel concludes that the American future president “was looking at everything like the real estate contractor who was before entering politics.”