There are only a few days left before long-term Chancellor Angela Merkel resigns from office. In an interview that she gave to the TV broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), she looks back on her 16 years as head of government.
What was the hardest for her, what do you think she mastered best and what will she do now?
Your greatest challenge
Personally, the greatest challenge was “the pressure to flee Syria and the surrounding countries, and then the corona pandemic,” she explains in an interview. In both cases you have seen how that affects people directly, where you are dealing with human fates.
“We can do it” was her famous sentence, which she uttered in 2015 when asked whether Germany could cope with the influx of 800,000 refugees. And even now she emphasizes: “Yes, we did it!”. But there would really be many, many people in Germany who helped, “many mayors, many volunteers, many who still have sponsorships today.”
But not everything went ideally, admits the CDU politician. “And there are also bad incidents when I think of Cologne New Year’s Eve”. On New Year’s Eve 2015/2016, hundreds of women were stolen, sexually assaulted and, in some cases, raped on Cologne’s Domplatte. According to the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office, the majority of the accused came from Algeria and Morocco.
Nevertheless: “We have wonderful examples of successful human developments when I think of high school graduates …”, said Merkel. She adds self-critically: “But of course we have not yet managed to tackle the causes of the flight. We have not managed to ensure that Europe has a uniform asylum and migration system. ”There is still a lot to be done here.
Where pressure has to be applied
On the subject of the fight against climate change, the Chancellor admits: “We have to be very, very much faster.”
Merkel last attended this year’s UN climate conference, which will take place in Glasgow, Scotland until mid-November: “Glasgow has already brought some results,” she says, but from the perspective of young people it is still justifiably too slow. Merkel added with surprising clarity: “And then I tell the young people: You have to put pressure on.”
But that was not an admission of personal failure in climate policy. The Chancellor added that majorities must be obtained for every climate protection measure, and that there are many fears of the social consequences of hard cuts, for example in private consumption.
What she last touched
In the last weeks of her term in office, Merkel visited several heads of state and government on farewell trips. French President Emmanuel Macron invited her to Burgundy and presented her with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
That touched her very much, said Merkel in an interview with DW: “I already know that there are also people who are not so satisfied with my politics. But when you are in France now, where, of course, we have often not had such friendly feelings for one another in history, I was delighted that so many people came to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and me. And that was a nice experience, I have to say that. ”
What she will do now
When asked what she will do if she is no longer in office soon, Merkel explains: “Now I don’t know what I’ll do afterwards. I said yes, I’ll take a rest first and see what comes into my head. ”
You will read and sleep a lot. Merkel had already emphasized several times that she believed she could let go of power quite well, which she now repeats in a DW interview. On the one hand, she is happy, but nevertheless admits: “But a little bit of sadness will certainly come, because I’ve always enjoyed my work, and I still enjoy doing it.”