Merkel defends controversial decisions at book launch

Angela Merkel, the longest-serving chancellor of a unified postwar Germany, was back in the spotlight on Tuesday evening. The Deutsches Theater in Berlin was the first port of call on Merkel's multi-continent tour to promote her autobiography Freedom. Memories 1954-2021.

On stage, Merkel was given the opportunity to defend her more controversial decisions. When pushed by journalist Anne Will to respond to critique that she was soft on Russia in exchange for cheap natural gas, that she did too little to address climate change or to fund the Bundeswehr, she pushed back by saying that many of those things were not solely in her control.

She also rejected accusations that she "skimped Germany into destruction" with her Christian Democratic (CDU) party's focus on saving money over spending it on, for example, aging infrastructure like the beleaguered national rail service Deutsche Bahn.

Will also questioned Merkel about her 2015 decision to eschew certain European Union statutes that require refugees to be processed in the first EU country in which they arrive, instead welcoming asylum seekers from countries like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan unequivocally.

"The alternative was to turn people away," perhaps violently, from the German border, "which for me, was so much worse," Merkel said. 

Merkel skirts the tough questions

As in her book, the former chancellor largely evaded the question of being too conciliatory towards Russia, particularly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in order to procure cheap fuel for Germany.

She writes however that by accepting Ukraine's bid to join NATO, the West was sending a strong signal to the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, features perhaps more prominently than any other leader in the book. She recalls him as someone who was "always ready to disrespect others," particularly by showing up late.

"Probably his greatest joy was that the American president had to wait for him," she writes of Putin's behavior towards Barack Obama, who garners nearly as much attention in her memoir as the Russian president. 

She describes the former US president glowingly, saying she knew right away "he was someone I could work well with." She also appears to accept without question his assertion that he had no personal knowledge that the National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on her personal mobile phone when that information came to light in 2015.

In one of the rare unknown insights the book offers, she reveals that Obama was one of the confidantes she sought advice from when deciding whether to run for a fourth term in 2017.

Trump 'acted as if Germany owed him something'

As for US President-elect Donald Trump, she found him to be one person in front of cameras and another entirely when they were alone. In public, he refused to shake her hand and "claimed that I had ruined Germany by taking in so many refugees in 2015 and 2016, accused us of spending too little on defense and criticized us for unfair trade practices."

Merkel says that he acted "as if Germany owed him and America something," but was uninterested in finding common ground or working on solutions.

Behind closed doors, however, he had greeted her appropriately and appeared to "want to like whoever he was talking to."

Light on unknown details

Analysts have pointed out that despite its 740-page heft, the book offers little in the way of self-reflection or indeed, little information at all that isn't already well known.

The book is also noticeably light on several topics, such as religion. Despite being the daughter of a pastor, Merkel doesn't speak much about Christian faith. There are a few scattered mentions of Islam, almost exclusively in connection with extremism and terrorism. Also hardly mentioned at length are non-Western world leaders, such as Narendra Modi or Xi Jinping and his predecessor Hu Jintao.

At the book launch, she did not take questions from the audience. She admitted towards the end, however, that she "did not leave the country in perfect condition," in terms of climate protection and digitalization.

Next, the former chancellor will head to other major European cities to promote her work and then to Washington, where Obama is expected to be on hand to support her.

Additional reporting by Christoph Strack