Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken to the BBC about her time in office and her views on current global events.
Mrs Merkel was asked if she had been too soft on Moscow during her time as Chancellor. She said that she believed a war in Ukraine would have started sooner and would have been worse, if Kyiv had begun the path to Nato membership in 2008.
“We would have seen military conflict even earlier,” she said. “It was completely clear to me that President Putin would not have stood idly by and watched Ukraine join Nato.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky disagrees, saying Mrs Merkel’s decision was a “miscalculation” that emboldened Russia.
Mrs Merkel also expressed concern about Vladimir Putin’s renewed threats of using nuclear weapons. She said that the potential for nuclear war is “frightening” and that leaders must do everything possible to prevent it.
She described her relationship with Mr Putin as having been based on diplomacy, but admitted that this ultimately failed to prevent Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In recent years, Mrs Merkel has faced criticism over her handling of the migrant crisis in 2015. She said she had made no apology for opening Germany’s doors to asylum seekers and called on Europe‘s leaders to invest more in African nations to improve living standards there.
However, critics have accused her of “managing” successive crises rather than making far-reaching reforms to future-proof her country and the EU.
Germany is now labelled as “the sick man of Europe”, with voters complaining that she failed to invest in roads, railways, and digitalisation. The economy hovers just above recession, and some accuse her of putting Germany’s economic interests first.
Mrs Merkel also discussed her experience dealing with Donald Trump during his first term in office. She said it was essential to present clear priorities and not be intimidated by the US President’s outspoken style.
However, she acknowledged that current global leaders face more pressure than she did, with sluggish economies, voters unhappy, and traditional politics under threat from the far-right and far-left.
Despite this, Mrs Merkel appears relaxed about her time out of power. “No, not at all,” she said when asked if she missed being Chancellor.