Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the gas deals she made with Russia saying they helped German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, revealing the strategy in her memoir Freedom, released in 30 languages on Tuesday.
Merkel’s spirited defence of her actions and central role in European geopolitics were clearly made to challenge those who accused of having been too soft on Russia, leaving Germany dangerously reliant on cheap Russian gas, and sparking turmoil with her much-maligned open door migrant policy from 2015 onwards.
AFP reports the septuagenarian’s autobiography comes as the world reels in turmoil from a host of challenges.
Wars rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, Germany is stuck in an economic malaise and faces early elections after its ruling coalition collapsed this month, and illegal immigrants flood Europe and beyond.
Merkel, who once posed for a selfie with a Syrian refugee, sees herself as purely a force for good when it comes to dealing with the latter.
She says she still “cannot understand how anyone could assume that a friendly face on a photo could encourage people to flee their homeland in droves.”
While affirming Europe “has to protect its external borders,” in the book she reportedly stresses “wealth and the rule of law will always make Germany and Europe desirable destinations.”
In addition, she writes fast-ageing Germany’s shortage of skilled workers makes regular immigration “unavoidable.”
Merkel’s 16-year tenure saw her serve alongside four U.S. presidents, four French presidents and five British prime ministers.
A display stand with copies of the book “Freiheit. Memories 1954 – 2021” by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Dussmann cultural department store in Berlin’s Friedrichstraße. The memoir is published in over 30 countries worldwide. (Leonie Asendorpf/picture alliance via Getty)
AFP notes Merkel, who speaks Russian, keenly defends her engagement over that time with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who speaks German along with her decision to depend on the Russo-German Nord Stream pipelines which ultimately plunged the nation into an energy crisis.
She describes the Russian leader as “someone constantly on the lookout for signs of disparaging behaviour toward him and yet always ready to disrespect others.”
Nevertheless, she says that she was “right to make a point, to the end of my tenure, of preserving our contact with Russia”.
“After all, Russia is one of the world’s two leading nuclear powers along with the United States, and a geographical neighbour of the European Union.”
Merkel says the gas Germany bought from Russia was needed as a transitional energy source because Germany was pursuing both a switch to renewable energy and the phase-out of nuclear power following Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster.
She also argues against Germany returning to nuclear energy, writing: “We can achieve climate targets without nuclear power and achieve technological success while giving other countries the courage to follow our example.”
On Nord Stream 2, which she approved after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, AFP reports she argues at the time it would have been difficult to get companies and gas users in Germany and in many E.U. member states to accept having to import more expensive liquefied natural gas from other sources.
Necessity therefore demanded Germany remained a customer of Russia even as it advanced into Ukraine and set world politics alight.