Angela Merkel - Navigating a world in crisis | DW Documentary

[Music] she's a very thoughtful kind person and angela merkel's a leader she's not a follower i look at her as a sympathetic figure as a decent human being who is ruthlessly pursuing what she considers to be the right path my disagreement with her concerns what that path is to do i would describe her as pragmatic and reasonable not bad qualities for a politician to have [Music] she's a very strong and determined woman but she uses that strength to inspire not to intimidate so she brings people together rather than putting them against one another she is a problem solver you know she's a she's a manager of the situation her ability to share the plain truth with her own people is an immense political achievement this is miracle's success [Music] she's quite transparent she's respectful and demands to be respected strong-willed firm decisive [Music] nobody could die angela merkel's political competence her political skill her tactical brilliance what i think has been lacking has been strategic vision this had to see i appreciate her as something of a mosaic because there's many parts to her [Music] has received the required majority of votes from members of the german bundestag and has thus been elected as the first female chancellor of the federal republic of germany a woman who as a young girl was trapped in a closed society and uh and here she becomes the chancellor of a democratic free country allow me to ask if you accept the election mr president i accept the election it was very clear that she was a very strong character very easy to underestimate so i expected her to do well and i remember saying to my people at the time she'll be there for a long time i didn't they should be there for that long i swear that i will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the german people promote their welfare protect them from harm uphold and defend the constitution and the laws of the federal republic of germany perform my duties conscientiously and do justice [Applause] no one expected she set the pace for women all over the world that we can do it she was the most unlikely chancellor for germany she was a woman and germany had never had a female leader before a divorcee and more importantly from from the gdr so in every which way she was possibly the person that you would have expected least to get the top job angela merkel was born in hamburg on july the 17th 1954 soon after her family moved to communist east germany the gdr she graduated from high school in 1973 studied physics in leipzig and earned her doctorate in 1986. shortly after the fall of the berlin wall she entered politics and became deputy government spokeswoman for east germany's last prime minister luther de mesiere she was an advisor to the new cdu of east germany and we met for a coffee and i found her very pleasant very smart incredibly determined asked lots of questions very inquiring but who could have imagined what would have happened to her afterwards i certainly didn't in december 1990 she won a direct mandate for the christian democratic union in the bundestag elections in 1991 then chancellor helmut cole appointed her to his cabinet as the federal minister for women and youth [Music] which is very surprising from today's perspective but she was young then and lacking in european experience merkel served as federal environment minister till 1998 underestimated by many and derided as cole's girl she became the cdu secretary general after the party's defeat in the 1998 federal elections two years later she was elected party leader in 2005 she ran against incumbent chancellor gerhart schroeder and won at the age of 51 her victory made her germany's youngest chancellor [Music] [Applause] the day after merkel assumed office she departed on her first official state visit to germany's most important european partner in paris she was welcomed by french president jacques chirac it was the first of well over 500 state visits over the next 16 years [Music] mrs merkel got to know four presidents of the french republic with four very different personalities jacques nicolas sarkozy myself and emmanuel macron she was careful to adapt to each of these personalities and to build a personal relationship that went beyond governmental matters the very next day angela merkel arrived in london for her first official visit with british prime minister tony blair well i was very keen for it to come as soon as possible i wanted britain to have a strong relationship with with germany because i got on well with her before she became chancellor um you know i thought this was someone i could i could work with and and you know get on with and therefore for me it made a lot of sense to strike up that relationship here as quickly as possible to cultivate good relationships with fellow world leaders angela merkel soon became a frequent flyer germany's ties to one of the world's most powerful countries the united states remained crucial in january 2006 she visited then u.s president george w bush for the first time [Music] you know my first impressions at the with 45 minutes alone in the oval office we're incredibly positive she's smart she's plenty capable she's got kind of a spirit tour that uh is uh appealing she loves freedom angela merkel brought class and dignity to a very important position and uh made very hard decisions i think it was a compassionate leader a woman who is not afraid to lead and now i'm going to take her to lunch thank you thank you michael and bush seem to instantly get along the same cannot be said for merkel's relationship with another powerful leader she first visited him in moscow three days later but she dealt with him throughout her tenure vladimir putin with putin fluent in german and the new chancellor fluent in russian it was expected they'd understand each other with ease well that's what we thought at the time but later it turned out that knowledge of the language or even the country though necessary is not sufficient to maintain and develop special relations between russia and germany six months later the russian president received the leaders of the economically strongest democracies for the first g8 summit in russia it was another first for angela merkel her debut in this club of rich nations when she came to her first big summit in petersburg she was just very calm very clear and you know no one no one was ever going to to to push her around at any of these summits not from the very beginning um and she has that quiet authority that that's that is effective one person it seemed hadn't taken note of that authority yet i wouldn't call it a an extended massage i'd call it a uh yeah i mean she was yeah it's kind of a spontaneous uh reflection of friendship and i'm sure people you know didn't know what to make of it but it's angela i'm sorry i did that and put you in the public spotlight but on the other hand it's a reflection of my uh my friendship with you angela merkel faced down powerful men on many more occasions over the next 16 years including vladimir putin who provoked the chancellor with his dog petulant former us president donald trump and autocratic turkish president recep tayyip erdogan angela merkel has proven beyond reasonable doubt that she is remarkable at chewing up her opponents especially male opponents that aren't underestimate her for being a woman i think chancellor merkel has largely transcended the debate on gender her her impact really dominated the conversation and drowned doubt any kind of side chatter about what it means like to be a woman in june 2007 the chancellor hosted her first g8 summit at a baltic resort in mecklenburg west pomerania she planned to tackle global problems with her powerful guests miroslov it helps you put your thoughts in order and focus on what matters most in private she's much more interesting animated uh with a good sense of humor than sometimes she comes across publicly where she comes across as very very disciplined very focused she's good company and and that's that's actually important in a political leader so when she's in private with people she's she will speak frankly um you know she listens and i think it's an advantage that she appears to be without egoism so this is i think a very again it's a trey and a politician that's very attractive and she's resolute but i also saw a side of her that was very compassionate and decent a kind person uh with a lovely soul and that's the person i got to know and yet despite the sunny atmosphere merkel met resistance at the summit when she pressed leaders to commit to climate protection the u.s president bolted a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions merkel didn't want the mood to sour but she also faced pushback from bush and blair on another issue stronger regulation of the financial markets [Music] just two months later the us real estate bubble burst hundreds of thousands of americans lost their homes banks began to falter washington pumped 700 billion dollars into financial institutions but it was too late the crisis quickly seized the global financial system european and german banking sectors were not spared in late 2008 angela merkel faced her first major challenge as crisis manager the situation on international financial markets is serious it's unprecedented in this form it calls into question much of what has been taken for yeah i granted one of the things i learned and i'm sure angela learned the same thing is that you you when you appear to have achieved a certain stability and things look stable and are carrying on in a in a fairly um predictable way your the risk is you think that this stability is permanent and of course it never is and so this this huge financial shock of the financial crisis was a was a you know a disaster at the time few european politicians seemed to grasp the extent of the financial crisis or that it would soon bring entire nations to the brink of collapse the european banks were in as much trouble as the american banks and maybe in more trouble and i think the great mistake in europe was to kick the can down the road repeatedly not realizing that the longer they waited the bigger the problem was going to get so i do think that at that point angela merkel was not the dominant figure in european politics one can't lay all the blame on her but the european elite generally sleepwalks into the eurozone crisis the eu was faced with its first stress test since merkel had taken office when the financial crisis spiraled into an economic crisis french president nicolas sarkozy urged all eu member states to work together to shore up banks and pump money into the economy angela merkel disagreed calling instead for national solutions in the next few months there is talk of 100 days but that should be taken symbolically in 100 the was that she was hesitant when it came to big european decisions being a scientist she always approached things from back to front anger merkel is synonymous with a particular german characteristic sort of language slow but sure she doesn't shoot from the hip she doesn't say the first thing that occurs to her she doesn't make the first decision without consulting and without having a strong knowledge base and without reading her papers when international speculators bet against highly indebted eu countries the euro was suddenly in danger of failing a spotlight fell on greece in october 2009 its new prime minister george papandreou was forced to admit that athens had been understating its deficit figures for years now it could no longer afford to borrow funds to service its debt veering towards bankruptcy greece urgently needed help once again angela merkel took her time making a decision of course talk to those facing the greatest challenges about how to keep the euro stable initially merkel was against bailing out greece with german taxpayers money her hardline stance was celebrated by the german press and went down well with the public the critical thing that she did not do was to explain to the german public that it was in their interests for the monetary union to hold together remember the german public felt almost none of the pain of the financial crisis monetary union has been good for germany it's not been some giveaway by germany to southern europe i don't think that message was communicated on the contrary it was represented to the german public as if these uh reckless profligate idol south southern europeans were being given some generous bailout by by germany in reality the german banks needed the crisis to be dealt with as much as anybody we must not forget that it was the idiocy of banks like deutsche bank and societal general and preparing which created the catastrophe of the euro crisis and she bailed them out by cynically transfer all those losses onto the shoulders of taxpayers she will go down in history as the chancellor who allowed that to happen and to label it solidarity with the greeks with the spaniards with the irish when it was no such thing greece was close to bankruptcy and it was feared the crisis could spread to other heavily indebted eurozone countries despite strong opposition in germany including within her own government angela merkel agreed to a huge bailout package i fought hard against germany's position and that of its finance ministry that greece should temporarily leave the eurozone i always believe that anyone who left would never come back and if one member left under pressure from others rather than of its own accord and other members would inevitably also be crowded out you've got two diametrically opposed interests like the interests of the paying party germany is that we don't want to pay the interest of the people receiving the payment is we need this to survive her ability to to chart the way through that whilst not losing her own public and not losing those countries from europe and the single currency well you've got to say that's that requires a high level of political skill which he exhibited the crisis with the euro is as bad as ever it's been and tomorrow may come the critical intervention which could save it or sink it it won't exactly be press one for default press two for more austerity but there are not many options beyond that the french german and greek leaders will speak tomorrow knowing they are running out of time a fierce dispute broke out within the eu and with greece merkel demanded severe fiscal austerity from athens in return for financial aid many greeks were already suffering economic hardship and took their anger to the streets angela merkel was cast as the villain as a europeanist i would like her to be a passionate european to bring the continent together instead maybe by being too dispassionate she's allowed the centrifugal forces to tear us apart to create greater inequities and imbalances within europe to weaken europe and germany in the end in the end germany did the right thing to prevent greece from crashing out of the eurozone did the right thing to stabilize the peripheral economies but only at the last minute and the result was that the pain was much greater than if germany had acted earlier and behaved more consistently all the bailouts were last minute it was ad hoc there was no strategy to it and my sense is that that made the eurozone crisis worse she was never one for easy solutions she tended towards multi-layered approaches that were helpful but cost a lot of time and accordingly a lot of money she of course defended the interests of her country in these crises but when there were tensions when there were differences of opinion she always ensured that we would find a way forward in the name of europe europe fails when the euro fails europe wins when the euro wins i mean europe went through a very difficult period i mean greece particularly and other countries went through an agonizing period and there's still the aftermath of that we're living with but again you've got to say and this is a tribute to her leadership greece didn't leave the european union didn't leave the euro the euro's still there europe's still there and you know the economies are in a position where they can recover but angela merkel wasn't always slow to make a decision she took swift action in march 2011 after a tsunami in japan damaged the fukushima nuclear power plant causing radiation to leak into the atmosphere and sea the disaster prompted a momentous u-turn on nuclear policy from merkel who announced germany would abandon atomic energy altogether as much as i pushed last fall for extending the operating lives of germany's nuclear power plants as part of our overall energy strategy i stayed unequivocally before this house today fukushima has changed my opinion on nuclear energy germany says it will phase out all of its nuclear power plants by 2022 vowing to immediately close seven of its oldest reactors a responsible decision or a nod to public opinion and what are the global implications of the germans going nuclear-free that was the only instance where she made a hasty decision too hasty in my opinion she usually took her time to find a solution but in this case she moved quickly and without consulting france beforehand la france city poc at the time i felt it was a mistake but if one looks at this decision from the vantage point of 2021 it looks better the alternative so-called renewable sources are getting more and more competitive so nuclear power looks less i think crucial to the solution of the problem of how do we have clean energy then i would probably have said if you'd asked me that question at the time of angela merkel's decision uh so i don't think this was one of her her worst calls mentioned many people wondered did she do this out of conviction that's how she communicated it herself that she could not have even imagined such an accident happening in a western industrialized country i know from sources close to her that she was truly shaken change also appeared on the horizon of the arab world in early 2011 when a wave of unrest challenged some of the region's authoritarian regimes millions of people in north africa and the middle east demanded more freedom rallying for social justice and pressuring their governments to resign tunisians were the first to force their president to step down the protest movement quickly spread to egypt where massive demonstrations forced out long-time president osni mubarak the people of egypt have spoken their voices have been heard and egypt will never be the same today is a day of great joy we are all witnesses to a historic change although many western politicians supported the upheavals in north africa with words they were in a dilemma they had long cooperated with the region's entrenched authoritarian governments both politically and economically germany was no exception you cannot do business with people with dictators you cannot sort of sign deals worth millions or billions of dollars and then say we support democracy and we support human rights so you need to decide what you want your policy to be you need to actively be having a policy to support democratic movements in these countries had you done that earlier had you you know if you do that now then maybe in future you can avoid these problems people in libya and syria also took to the streets in anti-government demonstrations the entire region was in turmoil the arab spring it appeared had caught world leaders off guard [Applause] with regard to the arab spring i think all of europe made the grave mistake of not adequately supporting democratic movements that includes germany in general and mrs macron in particular had they properly understood and supported the democratic demands of the tunisian egyptian and syrian youth who had long taken to the streets i'm sure we would be living in a very different world today for me angela merkel's mistake was not the way that she responded to the arab revolutions i think the mistake was to fail to anticipate what the consequence was would be when those revolutions went wrong well germany was very cautious very very cautious and we didn't know what germany's policy actually was and i suspect we didn't know because germany did not know what it could do it did support people who were fighting or asking for democracy young men and women who were on the streets in several of these countries but it wasn't clear what it is going to do to help these people and it sort of took a back seat in libya the march toward freedom took a violent turn when strongman muammar al-gaddafi refused to step down a civil war broke out and europe was confronted with a difficult choice should it stand by or intervene militarily the u.n security council set up a no-fly zone enforced by nato angela merkel was against the move germany abstained as did russia china brazil and india the germans are nowhere they broke ranks with their old european allies and the americans when the idea of a no-fly zone was being discussed at the united nations we see great risks the likelihood of large-scale loss of life should not be underestimated germany is very cautious and mrs merkel's stance on foreign deployments reflected that even though germany was part of the coalition in afghanistan i think germany should have shown more presence alongside france one understands that germany has an experience a historically bad experience with conflict in world war one world war ii so it's you know very circumspect however even in the recent times you know germany has been very war overs it's not in support of regime change for seven months french british and u.s fighter jets flew attacks in libya [Music] qadhafi was killed but the fighting raged on in the following years the fractured country descended deeper into civil war in syria peaceful protests gave way to armed uprisings when president bashar al-assad refused to yield and unleashed a brutal campaign against his own people syria was at war with itself and germany faced another difficult decision on how to respond a choice made no easier by the fact that russia was syria's ally france and britain favored providing military support to the opposition but angela merkel was cautious sensing that moscow was unlikely to back down from defending assad we must take care that our opponents do not receive even more weapons by countries that take a different stance on assad than germany and the european ultimately the solution to the problem from a humanitarian vantage point was to end the civil war in syria and stop the assad regime from killing its own people on a massive scale part of what i think characterized angela merkel's time as chancellor was a desire to avoid exerting power what is it that germany in this case could have done if it does not want to go to war so if she supported them the the rebels then would she how would she answer german people if these weapons of the support this aid would have got in the hands of the extremists so this was a very complex situation particularly in syria and so the conflict escalated and a country was destroyed while russia continued to support assad france britain the u.s and turkey hoped to oust him by backing the rebels with the major powers at odds over syria angela merkel sought to negotiate but all she could do was plea we're seeing millions of refugees and hundreds of thousands have fallen victim to this war this war must be put to an end and that will only work with a political solution her reputation in the arab world is very good and the main reason is because germany is not a world cup because you don't go to wars because you don't say that we're going to come and solve problems and change regimes or you know bomb places because you don't go to wars i think you maintained a very clean position that's for germany but also for all these years chancellor mackel has been in power germany is a strong democracy in my view it's a beacon for the rest of the world for liberal democracy for civil liberties for human rights for stability and all of that but you cannot be that beacon if you sit on the sidelines with the sort of the purity of inaction you never get your hands dirty dealing with the difficult issues of security in the world there's almost a sort of german exceptionalism that merkel continued to propagate islamic extremists exploited the chaos in syria to gain new footholds posing an entirely new threat [Music] in eastern europe another nation was slipping into chaos of its own in 2013 the eu offered ukraine a package of political and trade agreements but after long negotiations president viktor yanukovych rejected the deal citing pressure from russia moscow viewed the accord as a threat and president putin was demanding a say in the deal with the former soviet republic [Music] but we were repeatedly told no we will not do that we will not work in a multilateral format ukraine is a sovereign country we will communicate only with kiev i think that was the wrong strategy as it sparked fear and suspicion in moscow that they were plotting something against us or that this was all despite russia hundreds of thousands of pro-eu demonstrators demanded closer ties with europe and the resignation of president yanukovych his government cracked down on the protesters scores died in the violence yanukovych fled to russia [Music] they just chased him away end of story without any legal justification but that doesn't mean we opposed broader ties between ukraine and the european union once again that would have been perfectly possible but without a coup that way our relations with the eu and probably to a certain degree with the us would likely not have deteriorated so dramatically ukraine became a geopolitical flashpoint kiev accused moscow of supporting pro-russian separatists who took up arms on ukraine's crimean peninsula and eastern ukraine russia's annexation of crimea in february 2014 sparked international outrage and merkel's relationship with president putin hit an all-time low when the u.s and eu slapped sanctions on moscow angela merkel supported the move when russia invaded or annexed crimea and then fermented the civil war in eastern ukraine she was incredibly strong she absolutely went hard on sanctions in the eu and she didn't just agree with them she pushed them and she pushed them to be as hard as they could be but merkel still hoped to find a solution to the ukraine crisis by keeping a line of communication with putin open in june 2014 world leaders gathered in france to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the allied landings in normandy together with the french leader she tried to break the ice between vladimir putin and the new ukrainian president pedro poroshenko as the fighting in ukraine continued merkel refused to let up engaging in shuttle diplomacy with francois hollande between kiev and moscow merkel's negotiating skills were needed in my opinion she possesses one particular trait that is good for a negotiator and for politicians in general first she knows how to listen second she can hold herself back i would say that characterizes her best because when a person gets heated and starts to make a point with steely resolve and stubbornness it's not conducive to reaching a compromise and mutual understanding on february 12 2015 the effort succeeded in the belarusian capital minsk after long negotiations the opponents agreed to a ceasefire it worked because we held together in solidarity that night in minsk we shared the responsibility and showed a common desire to find a way out of that long night it was really our joint work mine and mrs merkels and the strength of the franco-german relationship that allowed us not to solve the ukrainian problem because there is still an occupation and tensions in eastern ukraine but to end the war once again angela merkel chose communication and cooperation over confrontation even if she no longer harbored any illusions about vladimir putin's politics i have come to moscow today in an easy phase of german-russian relations due to the illegal annexation of crimea which violates international law and the military clashes in eastern ukraine our collaboration has suffered a severe setback i say severe because we see this as a fundamental violation of peace and stability merkel didn't mince words but she also knew there was no viable alternative to cooperation we stand by our position that russia dangerously violated international law with its actions in eastern ukraine and crimea always phrased it in our talks with putin but we cannot change geography we need russia and russia needs us angela merkel the daughter of an east german pastor and vladimir putin a former kgb agent who was stationed in east germany it's a complicated relationship sometimes a trial of will sometimes all smiles and charm who's got a big influence and he speaks german and uh and i wouldn't you know look putin said he's wily and he can be pretty tough and but but so can angela so i wasn't worried about putin running over angela merkel uh she she can hold her own and i'm sure she did she's got very clear views having been brought up in eastern europe of of russia and particularly russia under vladimir putin which is not to say she doesn't want to have a working relationship but she's got no illusions despite their political differences germany and russia continued cooperation on north stream too a controversial pipeline under the baltic sea to deliver russian gas to europe merkel's support for the project was unflagging angela merkel more than most western leaders was impressed by putin and accepted the logic of putin's argument that he was a source of energy that europe could not do without it my own view is that she has been far too soft on russia during her time as chancellor yeah i think it's a mistake and i told that to gerhard schroeder i told it to angela you know i think it's a mistake because you know the motivations of russia are can be pretty confusing and i think the more that uh a nation that is not an open democracy has a an economic stranglehold on a democracy it puts people in a very difficult strategic position the ukraine conflict weighed heavily on merkel's relations with moscow but so too did putin's increasingly authoritarian behavior chancellor merkel didn't let the connection fail but she never stopped probing either i emphasized again how important the right to demonstrate in the civil society is what is the end result in 16 years of merkel's rule has russia improved its human rights record has it improved its approach to the international community has it improved its observance of the rule of law is freedom of expression are free elections uh more likely or less likely now in these 16 years and unfortunately the answer for all of these things has to be negative i believe it will always be in our interest to uphold ties with russia even if the values that underpin our political actions differ greatly in part angela merkel and vladimir putin a relationship marked by rivalry but also respect a solid working relationship has indeed developed between me and angela i hold her in high regard she is a very experienced politician a direct person but reliable when we negotiate something i can see and honestly it surprises me but it's true that she is a resolute person who can defend her positions [Music] throughout her 16 years as chancellor angela merkel repeatedly faced accusations that she was cozying up to authoritarian leaders like chinese president xi jinping from the outset she prioritized ties with beijing as part of her overall foreign policy approach [Music] for the last uh 16 years she has done a tremendous contribution to the sign of german relations but also to broaden the exchange's economic activities no european leaders has made so many trips to china as she did merkel also paid more visits to china than any other german leader before her the agenda of each of her 12 trips was dominated by the interests of german companies seeking business deals in the people's republic the german attitude towards china has been shaped by the strong belief on the part of major german corporations particularly the automobile companies that that china is their future and so it's not as if angela merkel made up uh the german china policy on her own there was enormous pressure uh from german business to make that relationship work well you said that merkel isn't solely responsible for the approach taken to beijing large german and french corporations have also played a role these companies are not particularly interested in human rights and have pushed their governments into signing trade agreements that avoid any mention of human rights during merkel's tenure china advanced to become the world's second largest economy and germany's biggest trading partner it's steadily gained political and military power and its regime has grown increasingly repressive china's certainly a problem uh for the western world because not only are they becoming uh an industrial competitor but they are pretty autocratic and you know the the world has to figure out how they're going to deal with human rights abuses maintaining strong economic ties with china without betraying core democratic values proved a difficult balancing act in 2007 merkel provoked beijing by welcoming the tibetan religious leader the dalai lama to berlin and she didn't shy from criticizing china on a range of issues i'm certain the topic of human rights is one we'll continue to discuss in future meetings that includes the freedom of religion and the freedom to express one's opinion human rights and related issues are an intrinsic part of our talks and relations spoke up every time china committed human rights violations even if that led to friction with china's appeals failed to boost democracy in china or secure more freedom for its people instead beijing cracked down on hong kong's pro-democracy movement it beefed up mass surveillance to monitor its own citizens and repressed ethnic minorities with increasing brutality [Music] still cooperation remained merkel's key strategy in 2020 she pushed a european union investment deal with china over the finish line i will miss angela merkel's attitude to china in particular she understands it seems to me that china is too complex to classify as either black or white good or bad the engagement between the european union and germany in particular and china at the economic front has always been very important we have to recognize each other we have to accept each other we have to work with each other we just can't say oh if you have changing you if you didn't converge become one of us we're going to bash you we're going to we're going to continue we're going to we're going to be uh view you as as the evil empire or something like that in our approach to china we have to accept that it is and will remain a trading partner but within that relationship we must never be naive [Music] never be naive merkel would come to learn that also apply to relations with allies the german chancellor instantly hit it off with the new us president barack obama they were not an obvious match obama the charismatic orator and merkel the former physicist and they didn't always see eye to eye on political issues i remember she saying about barack obama that charisma only gets you so far in life in other words yes you can charm the crowds you can make great speeches but ultimately it's down to the paperwork and it's down to the rigor of the decisions we can be a little more informal among friends [Applause] obama appreciated merkel's analytical approach to problems and valued her as a close international ally she's always been somebody i can trust and somebody who i think deeply believes in the role that germany can play and that all wealthy nations can play in not only making our countries better but also making the world better during his eight years in office barack obama visited germany more than any of his predecessors the two leaders genuinely seem to have a good time together but their relationship hit the rocks in 2013 when it was revealed that the u.s national security agency had tapped angela merkel's cell phone the scandal shocked germany and ruptured its alliance with washington on the subject of the nsa i have made it clear in discussions with the american president spying on friends is unacceptable obama apologized to merkel for the affair he maintained he had known nothing about the surveillance which he said had begun under his predecessor george w bush of course and i had no idea that we were spying on angela merkel but yeah i mean that's not the definition of friendship and she she had every right to be uh straightforward inner criticism not just angela merkel brazil's president jill marusev was also a target of nsa eavesdropping the two leaders pledged joint action against brazil and germany have submitted a draft resolution to the united nations and what does it state yeah it states that this is indeed a violation of human rights as well as of the integrity and sovereignty of nations obama's administration watered down the anti-spy resolution angela merkel remained pragmatic knowing that on the world stage holding a grudge was counterproductive she simply couldn't afford to stay mad at germany's powerful ally [Music] we need to rebuild trust which implies that trust has been shaken cooperation is difficult without trust but the mounting crises in the world could only be solved by working together thank in 2014 the terrorist group islamic state launched a campaign to take over parts of iraq and syria hundreds of thousands of people were killed or displaced to push back the militants the u.s led coalition joined by france and britain targeted the so-called islamic state with air strikes this time violence spread into europe on january the 7th 2015 two gunman raided the offices of the french satirical magazine charlie hebdo in paris twelve people were killed that day traumatizing the country angela merkel was in london visiting british prime minister david cameron and immediately pledged germany's support what happened today in paris is a barbaric attack against our european values merkel for the stance she took when france fell victim to terrorist attacks germany was our most valuable friend through these times she was able to express solidarity with gestures angela merkel came to paris she took the initiative and was the first to say she would join a mass demonstration against the threat of islamic extremism on january 11. that shaped our cooperation in the fight against terrorism it was very important for franco-german relations and for the personal relationship between myself and miracles [Music] in the summer of 2015 merkel faced one of the most consequential decisions of her political career millions were fleeing war and persecution in syria and other crisis regions many sought refuge in europe and there you had a caravan of the world's most destitute finding their way um through these hustlers on these dangerous boats making their way into greece and and italy and beyond and everywhere they went the doors were slammed in their faces everyone was closing their borders to prevent migrants from entering she took the whole step of standing up and saying i am going to open my borders and i will allow these people in she knew she was taking a risk [Music] we have an obligation to grant refuge to those who deserve refuge [Music] hundreds and thousands of syrians fleeing bombs fleeing oppression somehow managing to get to europe and then walking to germany and chanting germany germany the problem is not a european problem the problem is a german problem nobody would like to stay in hungary so we don't have difficulties with those who would like to stay in hungary nobody would like to stay in hungary neither in slovakia nor poland or estonia all of them would like to go to germany hungary is really europe's poster child for the worst refugee response where germany is the best and now we're seeing france and britain today announced respectively 24 000 and 20 000 refugees that each of those countries will take in but remember over a period of years whereas in one day this past week germany took in 17 000 refugees in one day [Music] [Music] it would have been unthinkable to launch military operations against people at the border seeking asylum seriously in a full game my first reaction was there's a woman with a big heart and i'm sure she was motivated by human compassion it was clearly a tough political decision for her but she took a lead germany is strong and our motto to approaching this must be we've done so much we can do this i was moved i felt a great affinity to her i cheered and celebrated angela merkel we can do this and if there's an obstacle on our path we must overcome it i know that this decision was not easy for chancellor merkel it took a lot of courage to make that decision both political courage moral courage and the courage of one's convictions fear shuffling us the declaration we can do this via schaffendas was a truly extraordinary political u-turn it ran counter to much that she had said in previous years including her questioning of multiculturalism of the possibility of a multicultural society more importantly it plunged european migration policy into chaos no it wasn't a bad decision on miracles part it was a bad decision on the part of the eu in light of this migration crisis it proved unable to show solidarity and unity germany i think this was a great political mistake it underestimated the dangers of uncontrolled migration allowing that to happen gave rise to an extremely unpleasant populist backlash by late summer 2015 germans were taking to the streets to protest the chancellor's migration policy she fought back when we had [Music] i don't think we can blame her for it although yes the decision did change the continent perhaps forever it uh certainly exposed their islamophobia but i think it exposed it chancellor mccall didn't cause it she didn't make them islamophobic she didn't make them fear the other they already did she had to weather the political storm at the time large parts of the german public hated her but a statesman or state's woman is someone who stands up to domestic pressure and she withstood the pressure she is a strong woman [Music] some praised angela merkel as a politician with a big heart others attacked her even european partners criticized her policy merkel looked for allies for more countries willing to take in migrants and she called for a europe-wide refugee policy but gaining partners proved difficult eastern european countries were especially reluctant eu leaders convened in brussels to find a solution despite their differences they agreed on one thing to stop people from war-torn countries from entering western europe the eu would have to support turkey a country long left to care for syrian refugees on its own on behalf of the european union angela merkel traveled to istanbul in october 2015 seeking help from the government of prime minister ahmed davutoglu [Music] for five years turkey and neighboring countries like jordan and lebanon had shouldered the burden of all these refugees to european leaders and to me the crisis was something that was far away they wanted to stop refugees from entering europe at the turkish border and they unilaterally expected turkey to play along turkey played hardware in her meeting with its all-powerful president recep tayyip erdogan merkel tried to secure a guarantee that ankara would stop refugees from crossing into the eu among the incentives eu financial aid and the prospect of visa-free travel in europe for turkish citizens in march 2016 the eu and turkey struck a deal from then on fewer migrants reached europe even though hundreds of thousands more fled their homes to escape violence they remain effectively imprisoned inside refugee camps angela merkel proved herself by letting them in to begin with that she has a humanitarian heart but what she did a few days or weeks later when she effectively bribed erdogan of turkey with billions of european money to allow so that erdogan would allow us europeans to violate international law on refugees that turned lesbos and other parts of europe into prison camps both for the local senator refugees and precipitated the closing down of the borders and the electrification of our border fences the turkey deal is ascribed to mecca it was the right thing to do what's wrong is that it is ascribed to merkel alone it was the commission that negotiated the agreement with turkey at the same time public dissatisfaction with brussels was mounting in britain a growing chorus demanded more independence and less immigration the answer britain's exit from the eu brexit brexit might not have happened had it not been for the appearance that europe had lost control of its borders the big issue in britain in 2016 was immigration brexit was a british problem it wasn't a european problem and it wasn't a merkle problem and it wasn't a refugee problem brexit was built at home in early 2016 prime minister david cameron pressed eu partners to grant britain special status ensuring its sovereignty above all in migration policy he got what he wanted in a deal strongly backed by angela merkel who was fighting to keep britain in the eu going into these negotiations we are prepared to do everything we can to create the conditions that will allow britain to remain in the european union that is important to germany but it's up to the uk citizens to decide that decision was put to a referendum in june 2016. stay in the eu or leave 2016 i'm afraid was the worst time to hold the referendum you had a big immigration crisis in europe which of course germany was heavily involved in you know we were still recovering from the financial crisis with austerity there were all sorts of other reasons that came into it the pro-brexit camp exploited public fear of refugees and immigration to whip up support for leaving cameron's party colleague boris johnson was among those campaigning with nationalist rhetoric to end eu membership on june 23 2016 a narrow majority of britons backed brexit angela merkel was not amused today the decision of the majority of the british public to end the united kingdom's membership in the european union for her brexit was a very serious blow remains a serious blow and you know it's it's uh she tried everything she possibly could to avoid it the divorce negotiations dragged on for years first with the new british prime minister theresa may when she quit in 2019 boris johnson took over promising to get brexit done in the uk want a deal we seek a deal and i believe that we can get one we can do it this shuffled us i think is the is the phrase britain ultimately got a deal and the european union lost a key member nationalism triumphed over european cooperation a defeat for angela merkel and for european unity [Music] we're going to beat china japan we're going to beat mexico the fake media is trying to silence us we're going to build the wall mexico is going to pay for the wall fake news 2016 saw donald trump win the white house pledging to shake up the world order with his nationalist agenda we are going to make america great again in the end nearly all national leaders put their country first donald trump was just so rude as to say it out loud it's going to be only america first following his inauguration trump's foreign policy appeared designed to undermine global cooperation and alienate allies but the u.s was still one of germany's most important partners angela merkel was in a bind deutschland germany and the us are bound together by values democracy freedom respect for the rule of law and human dignity on the basis of these values i offer to work closely with the future president of the united states donald trump a massive blizzard may have thrown a wrench in their plans causing some to view the storm's delay as a bad omen for the hotly anticipated meeting of two of the world's most powerful leaders u.s president donald trump and german chancellor angela merkel two months after taking office donald trump extended his first invitation to the german chancellor to visit the white house he made it clear he wanted to redefine bilateral trade ties in particular he criticized germany for its large trade surplus with the united states i would say that the negotiators for germany have done a far better job than the negotiators for the united states but hopefully we can even it out we don't want victory we want fairness all i want is fairness this is yamiya it's feared us it's more than fair that both parties to trade deals seek to profit from their agreements merkel aimed to avoid openly confronting trump but the brash u.s president and circumspect german chancellor appeared worlds apart donald trump absolutely loathe angela merkel i cannot think of another example of one politician expressing such hot-blooded contempt for another as he did towards her he just could not handle he didn't like her hyper rationality he couldn't handle her calmness he was endlessly suspicious of the fact that she didn't express herself with a similar form of vulgarity to the to the one that he had once again merkel banked on communication with a difficult trump revived an old accusation as far as uh wiretapping i guess by you know this past administration at least we have something in common perhaps trump stuck to his confrontational course he withdrew the us from the paris climate accord that merkel had fought so long to achieve he repeatedly demanded that nato allies and germany in particular increased their own defense spending but 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense even if the two didn't show it relations between germany and the us were in free fall the times in which we could completely rely on each other are to an extent over i don't know i don't know it's uh uh that was just a not a good period in german or u.s relations germany is a very close ally and a very important friend germany is really important for europe and uh and germany's got a lot of sway in terms of helping shape uh kind of world opinion on key issues and therefore it makes sense for the u.s president to be close to the german chancellor with exclusionary populism on the rise assumed the mantle of virtually the sole defender of democratic values especially during the trump era as a counterweight to trump who sought to [ __ ] and undermine democracy mecca came to the fore as the most effective proponent of european democracy and democratic values while trump remained erratic and vindictive angela merkel became the center of gravity for liberal democratic values and after four turbulent years she was still holding her ground as donald trump exited the world stage unlike trump who denied the reality of climate change angela merkel made the fight against global warming a policy priority as host of a g8 summit on the baltic in 2007 she hoped to get the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters to set limits on emissions but she faced stiff resistance angle was very strong on the environment and i don't blame her uh well i understood the issue i just didn't want to have a global treaty that didn't include china and india otherwise it was a waste of time merkel's guests acknowledged that rises in co2 emissions would first need to be stopped and then substantially reduced but their agreement was largely non-binding the the final absolutely from the summit in haile gundam said we will seriously consider cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by the middle of the century and i was just floored if you understand the language you realize that's a completely empty statement and then the media hyped michael up and dubbed her the climate chancellor but she'd really done nothing to justify that title merkel strove to lead by example in 2007 her cabinet approved a package to slash germany's greenhouse gas emissions by 40 before 2020. it included higher taxes on gas guzzling vehicles but german car makers blocked it has always been a staunch defender of the german car industry and protected its lobby including in brussels for example when it came to stricter exhaust regulations cars remain germany's top export product and the automotive industry a powerful employer merkel could not and would not meddle with this powerful sector her clean energy legacy is also mixed while the share of renewable energy increased by 36 during her tenure germany still operates europe's dirtiest coal-fired power plants and by global standards its citizens have a large carbon footprint however it's a great illusion to think that a little country like germany can save the planet the reality is that until you can constrain china now the second largest economy the largest if you measure it on a purchasing power parity-adjusted basis china's the key what germany does in its own makes no difference it's irrelevant even if the germans ceased their emissions altogether permanently shut down their factories and embraced an agricultural future it would make no difference at all to the future trajectory of average temperatures in the world it absolutely makes sense for an industrialized country like germany to pursue ambitious climate targets we need to show that prosperity and climate protection are not mutually exclusive and then no one would have been able to say no as an industrialized country we can't manage such a transformation we could have done it during her leadership global temperatures continued to rise when a new generation began demanding action merkel backed their call at least rhetorically the fight for more efficient climate protection remained a priority until the end of her tenure there are those who are actively protesting and pressuring us there are also those who are doubtful it is every government's task to bring everyone on board germany is taking on this task we will make our contribution to a sustainable economy and sustainable way of living worldwide she's really emotionally invested in the issue she truly believes from the bottom of her heart that what's at stake here is humanity's very existence but she's also pragmatic she knows what you can and can't get done and that's why the decisions taken were often nothing more than the lowest common denominator i believe i have invested a lot of energy in climate protection but i still have enough scientific sense to understand that under our current objective circumstances we can't continue at this pace [Music] meanwhile something else as invisible as greenhouse gas was mounting to another global crisis in early 2020 starting in the chinese city of wuhan the coronavirus spread across the world at a breakneck speed the public health emergency caught the world sorely unprepared hundreds of millions have fallen ill millions have died initially hesitant merkel imposed restrictions in a landmark address she appealed directly to the public dear fellow citizens the coronavirus is currently changing daily life in our country dramatically social togetherness all of this is being put to the test like never before the government imposed drastic measures to curb the spread of the virus germany went into lockdown shutting businesses cultural venues restaurants and shops public life came to a standstill this is serious please take it seriously since german reunification no since the second world war there has not been a greater challenge for our country that so depended on our solidarity i think she did what she needed to do she's one of those that took decisive action immediately and as a matter of fact i think it worked she was one of those leaders that really prevented the the um the virus from spreading at a at a fast rate and got it under control i think chancellor merkel did shine through because she seemed um motherly almost because she kind of explained things and we saw how she was explaining things to germans you know and we from the outside felt but we don't see other leaders doing this if you look at just the past year and a half countries that have been led by women have coped far better during this pandemic than others in germany and around the world the virus claimed many lives and took a heavy social and economic toll entire industries were forced to shutter for months like other continents europe faced severe economic fallout and a further erosion of public trust in government to shield the eu from both angela merkel broke a german fiscal taboo together with french president emmanuel macron she backed a strategy she'd ruled out a decade earlier collective debt to share the costs of the crisis across the euro zone robert musso zamstein europe must stand together we need a quick economic recovery and that is why we are proposing a fund worth 500 billion euros angela merkel came forward and argued that europe was uh mineshaft a community of fate and shifted her position on the question of some greater degree of fiscal federalism macron's argument was if europe did not do this did not step up in a way that it hadn't during the financial crisis then europe would not have a future the populists would win everywhere i think it was extremely important in 2020 that angela merkel accepted that that was a big turning point and it suggested to me that a lesson had been learned from the very messy uh eurozone crisis [Music] throughout all of the crises that have shaken europe she was a representative of european interests in the euro crisis the greece crisis and most recently in the pandemic miracle always sought solutions that would safeguard europe's future solutions [Music] in mid-august 2021 the taliban took the afghan capital of kabul largely without resistance with this the ambitious project of the united states and its allies including germany came to an abrupt end the conflict which had dragged on for 20 years was finally catching up with angela merkel at the end of her chancellorship this is the development is especially bitter dramatic and terrible for the people in afghanistan this country has suffered again and again in the course of its history as of late 2001 the german military and other nato troops had been deployed along the hindu kush to support the us in their fight against the taliban and the al-qaeda terrorist group their mission was to bring afghanistan more security and promote human rights women's rights and democratic development more than 200 000 people lost their lives in the conflict it was a mistake to protract the operation for 20 years in the absence of a coherent plan that would have stabilized afghanistan stabilized it i don't say democratized it i don't say modernized it stabilized it when angela merkel became chancellor in 2005 german troops were already deployed in afghanistan she visited the bundeswehr in the region several times merkel supported and justified the mission even though it cost the lives of 59 german soldiers to us it's important that this country does not fall into the hands of those who would disregard basic rights prohibit traditions practices and endanger world peace i believe that afghanistan must take matters into its own hands while also respecting human rights with this in mind nato troops trained the afghan army for years supplying countless weapons when in february 2020 donald trump announced the withdrawal of u.s troops from afghanistan by may 2021 it was clear that all other foreign troops would also leave the country the new u.s president joe biden had extended the withdrawal date to the end of august 2021 but even months before the taliban were taking back province after province thus ended a mission that had been ordered by a different us president 20 years ago the taliban regime is coming to an end i think about all the interpreters and people that helped not only us troops but nato troops and they're just it seems like there's going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people many former afghan colleagues of the german military and other western troops had been requesting visas to leave the country for months most of them had been rejected and left to their own fate in afghanistan no one should be able to sleep easy knowing that that has been the outcome of this disastrously ill-planned exit angela merkel tried to justify the evacuation of afghan personnel to the german parliament it's not too complicated to come up with precise analysis and evaluations in hindsight knowing and predicting everything costs fairly little effort angela merkel always has an inclination knowing everything in hindsight costs fairly little effort and i think in that sense this sequence of events is not a reflection of her being tired or ready to leave the position of chancellor she's been like this from the get-go by now western troops have completely withdrawn from afghanistan leaving behind a country in ruins [Music] now after 16 years the era of angela merkel is coming to an end 16 years in which the german chancellor faced unprecedented challenges at home in europe and abroad it's still a remarkable achievement to have kept the whole thing together and kept it together through probably the most difficult set of years that europe experienced there's not much doubt in my mind that people will miss angela merkel when she goes angela merkel will be remembered as a great european states woman she kept the european union together despite the numerous crises we experienced she will be missed but she will also be busy we don't want her to we don't want her to quit but she's going to be the patron of women all over the world i bet a legacy of angela merkel is there's a lot of girls who watch angela merkel say i too can have a position of responsibility and power because she conducted herself with such dignity [Applause] when she goes there is going to be an enormous hole in the world and that will be a merkle hole but of course holes always get filled and the world moves on [Music] the true essence of the merkle chancellorship is stagnation the goal was to keep things as they were because germans were content with the way they were well i would certainly remember her until i die but i fear that she's not going to be remembered in history because she didn't have a vision for europe or for germany [Music] she got many things right and did nothing substantially wrong that's no small compliment [Music] i don't know what she's planning to do next but politicians of her caliber never just disappear she will certainly remain in demand in one way or another [Music] in the past 16 years i've had little time to think about things like that and then i'll try to read a bit and my eyes will droop because i'm tired and i'll take a nap and then let's see where i turn up [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 124,052

Rating: 4.6419516 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, financial crisis, USA, Russia, refugee crisis, Corona, populism, GermanElection, Germany, German election, Bundestag, Merkel, Chancellor Merkel, Angie, exclusive, exclusive premiere, Tony Blair, George Bush, who is angela merkel, angela merkel documentary

Id: YJLzd8EK__g

Length: 86min 46sec (5206 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021