A file photograph from April 30, 2014, exhibits then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel attending the parliamentary election marketing campaign program for Hesse State, on the Frankfurt’s Kap European Congress Heart in Frankfurt, Germany.
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Mehmet Kaman/Anadolu
There are few world leaders who can declare to have labored intently with 4 U.S. presidents. However Chancellor Angela Merkel can.
She is the one girl to ever lead Germany, and her 16-year tenure as chancellor made her one of many longest-serving leaders within the European Union.
Raised in Soviet-ruled East Germany, Merkel has stated she by no means felt just like the GDR was her residence nation. She received concerned in politics in her 30s, simply after the autumn of the Berlin Wall in 1989. By that time, she had already obtained a doctorate in quantum physics.
She discusses all of this and extra in her new e book, Freedom. All Issues Thought-about host Mary Louise Kelly spoke to Merkel about feminism, Vladimir Putin, a second Donald Trump presidency, and extra.
The transcript of this interview is of the simultaneous English translation of Angela Merkel’s responses, which had been in German.
Interview highlights
Mary Louise Kelly: You describe a second in 2017. You had been on stage on the G20. You had been requested, “Do you see your self as a feminist?” And also you needed to actually give it some thought. Why?
Angela Merkel: Effectively, it was a kind of preparatory assembly for the G20 assembly in Germany, in Hamburg. And I used to be requested that query. I had to consider that for a second, as a result of with classical feminism in Germany, I hyperlink up one thing which means that there have been actual activists, feminine activists for girls’s rights — and I used to be not a part of them. And I thought of that, and in the midst of my political profession, I received to the conviction that equality, the participation of girls will not be one thing that comes about routinely. And that subsequently, I’ve to face up and I’ve stood up and grow to be energetic for girls’s quotas, for the promotion and growth of girls. And subsequently, in my e book, in my manner, I write now that I’ve been a feminist, as a result of I’ve all the time advocated the equal participation of men and women on the planet.
Kelly: So, if I ask you at the moment in 2024, do you see your self as a feminist? What is the reply?
Merkel: Sure. In my manner, I really feel as a feminist. Sure.
Kelly: One of many many male leaders you’ve gotten wrangled with is Vladimir Putin. And I need to spend a little bit time on him and what you’ve gotten discovered from coping with him. You had been famously afraid of canines. Putin is aware of this. Would you inform me what occurred in Sochi (a metropolis in Russia) in 2017?
Merkel: Effectively, he knew about it. I already instructed him after I first noticed him formally. However, after I got here to the official go to in 2006 in Moscow, he already gave me a pet canine as a present. And in Sochi, I noticed his actual canine.
Kelly: A toy pet canine, proper?
Merkel: And it was a toy. And it was an try to actually attempt to kind of encourage worry into me, in a sure manner. However I attempted to not let him know and to not let him sense it. And whereas I attempted to go on enterprise as regular, and we began our speak.
Kelly: You stated you tried to not present worry. Did you are feeling worry?
Merkel: No. At that very second, I used to be not fearful. I used to be completely assured that President Putin already knew that nothing aggressive may have occurred, and subsequently I did not really feel any worry.
Kelly: So, with this as a backdrop for the best way that you simply two have interacted, you write at size within the e book about Russia, about Ukraine. And I need to concentrate on one second in 2014. “Little inexperienced males” have appeared to occupy Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula. And also you write, Chancellor, that you simply confronted Putin on the cellphone. Your phrase — that you simply “confronted him” — not that you simply known as him, along with your suspicion that these armed males carrying inexperienced uniforms had been, in reality, Russian troopers. And also you say, he replied with a barefaced lie. What occurred in that decision?
Merkel: Effectively, already when he known as me up, I used to be totally conscious that it was almost definitely that these had been army forces from Russia on Crimea. And that, in fact, has modified my relations with Putin. We had controversies, all the time. We had controversial talks and discussions, all the time. However up till then, it was my feeling that he did not inform any lies. And this was a lie. And he admitted to that in a while. And that has essentially modified our relationship as a result of I all the time needed to be very cautious, not realizing whether or not he was telling the reality or not. And that is what I describe within the e book.
In her new memoir Freedom, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel shares
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Kelly: And also you write, and I am quoting: “The rule breaker was setting the phrases he needed to be stopped.” I am going to make the plain level – that was 10 years in the past. He hasn’t stopped. He stored going, and right here we’re, a decade later. With the good thing about hindsight, ought to Germany, ought to NATO have performed extra?
Merkel: After all, when writing the e book, I’ve requested myself that very query. And looking out again, I feel it was good and proper to strive every little thing to discover a peaceable answer to the battle between Russia and Ukraine as a result of we see the excessive variety of victims now. That has not been profitable. And I additionally write within the e book that, from my perspective, the COVID pandemic has made it much more tough to search out options to the issue, as a result of over a really lengthy time period we now have not been in a position to get in contact personally. We solely had contacts through phone. We begin[ed] a struggle of aggression in February 2014 — Russia’s struggle of aggression towards Ukraine. The world has essentially modified — specifically for us, the Europeans. And now, we have to present army energy to answer this. And within the mid-term, in fact, we additionally want to search out methods to place an finish to this struggle, however in a manner that Ukraine stays a sovereign state – a state that may make its personal selections and selections.
Kelly: I suppose the massive image query is, did you underestimate Vladimir Putin?
Merkel: No, I do not assume so. For that very motive, already in 2008 in Bucharest, when there was a NATO summit, I used to be against accepting Ukraine too rapidly into NATO. In 2008, already we [had] seen that he attacked Georgia. And on the time, I believed that we must always do every little thing that was attainable to search out peaceable options, however I’ve not underestimated him. I used to be stuffed with concern and worries that really we’d find yourself in a powerful battle. And in 2022, properly, we discovered that this was true.
Kelly: And right here we’re once more. He ended up beginning the most important battle in Europe since World Warfare II. Tens of hundreds of individuals have died. Nothing may have been performed to cease it?
Merkel: Up till now, nobody has discovered such a risk, however I’m not actively concerned in politics. I can solely write about this. And those that help Ukraine at the moment ought to work, should work along with Ukraine to search out options to place an finish to this battle. However I can not make any contribution as a result of my energetic political time has come to an finish.
Kelly: You additionally wrote about Donald Trump and about assembly him on the White Home after he was elected president. This was 2017. And that you simply flew residence from that assembly feeling uneasy. Why?
Merkel: Donald Trump, as president, was an individual who very strongly supported his concepts. That is pure. That is what each president of america of America does, as each chancellor does. However Donald Trump, lower than others, believes within the functionality or the standard of a compromise. He desires to be the only real winner in any kind of battle, and he doesn’t consider in any win-win scenario the place either side profit from an answer. And that makes the collaboration tougher and completely different than different heads of presidency.
There are few world leaders who can declare to have labored intently with 4 U.S. presidents. However Chancellor Angela Merkel can. Right here she is with Donald Trump on the White Home throughout his first time period.
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Evan Vucci/AP
Kelly: He known as into query NATO as a collaborative safety alliance. As , many individuals are questioning whether or not this second— his reelection— indicators the top of the post-World Warfare II period of American management on the planet. Does it?
Merkel: I hope that President-elect Trump, as he did in his first time period of workplace, now additionally understands that NATO doesn’t solely serve the aim of defending Europe, with the help of the U.S. and Canada, however that the partnership with Europe can be a profit for america of America. As a result of collectively, [we are] a lot stronger towards these [who] don’t need our lifestyle — Russia, China. It signifies that there are good causes, even for america of America, to need NATO to be sturdy. What we now have understood in Europe, and specifically in Germany, is that we have to do extra for our protection, which we didn’t do sufficiently prior to now.
Kelly: So, is {that a} no to my query? This isn’t the top of U.S. management on the world stage?
Merkel: I don’t need to consider that that is the top of U.S. management. I do not consider it, and I hope not.
Kelly: I need to carry it to an finish, circling again to the place we started — questions on being a girl chief. Donald Trump is a person identified to hurl insults at girls. He makes use of misogynistic language. He has attacked Nancy Pelosi as evil, sick and loopy. He known as Kamala Harris low IQ and silly. He talks about grabbing girls by their genitals. He is been held answerable for sexual abuse. Did you ever sense that he underestimated you as a result of you’re a girl?
Merkel: No, I didn’t have that feeling. I feel I used to be the personification of Germany for him. Partly he was a bit tough in the direction of us relating to tariffs, relating to all our financial energy as a rustic – we talked about that ceaselessly. However what you’ve gotten simply described is one thing that I can’t verify.
Kelly: So, final query. Something you desire to People to listen to instantly from you as we grapple with a brand new chapter in our management right here?
Merkel: …There are lots of residents of america of America that shield the establishments of america: the courts, the justice system, the free elections. That many individuals arise for compromises for the truth that we will type out disputes peacefully and inmates of excellent discussions, and that we get good options past political borders. As a result of that speechlessness, the aptitude to not converse anymore and to insult one another, I feel it is a step backward in civilization. And I might assume that many individuals ought to arise towards that and put science up towards that.
