What are your thoughts on Angela Merkel and her legacy?

12 comments

1. Appeased the Russians and made her country massively more dependent on their natural gas

   Starting the closure of perfectly good nuclear plants was especially dumb

2. I rather enjoyed myself telling Germans how they were being Merkeled over the years. [Then Putin found out her Achilles tendon](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/11t6esm/after_putin_learned_that_angela_merkel_was_afraid/)

3. Who?

4. Momma told me if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all

   I like Olaf Scholz, I think he’s vastly better than the past few German PMs, not only for Germany but for Germany’s allies as well

5. I have appropriated the merkel-raute

6. Her legacy is so negative that I can halfway forgive conspiracy theorists who say that she was fundamentally East German in character and secretly longed for the bad old days of the Soviet Union.

   German energy policy is a disaster. Not only did it comprehensively fail in its goal – we did better than Germany in reducing carbon emissions without pouring ruinous sums into renewables that were doomed from the start – it cultivated a dependency on Russia that made Germany effectively powerless in the face of Russian aggression. Donald Trump took a lot of deserved criticism for undermining NATO, but the United States did not deliberately cultivate dependency on the country NATO exists to oppose. Schroeder (who went to work for Gazprom, I think?) and Merkel did that while lecturing us about our commitments.

   The German military is a disaster. For years we were told that the 2% spending target was too much or unnecessary. Then Russia invades Ukraine and Germany sends…helmets. Within a few weeks, a frustrated head of the German military basically writes an open letter telling everyone, in essence: “I have absolutely nothing to give. The cupboard is bare.”

   Much was made of “freeing the Leopards.” Where are they? It seems like they’re mostly coming from other countries, not Germany. Could that be because Germany’s tank park is in such poor repair after decades of underfunding under prior administrations that it doesn’t actually have enough working tanks to give? That would primarily be the fault of Merkel and her predecessors.

   So you could say I’m not a fan.

7. I know who Angela Merkel is but have zero clue of her legacy.

8. Overall seemed generally competent and at least not hated while in office. Since then it appears her policies on energy, internet and Russia have created problems for Germany in hindsight

9. I wasn’t even talking about coal etc being better wtf

10. I think she showed a lot of girls and women in GER that they can become chancellor. And that’s a huge archivment. Her politics were too conservative for me, but she did mostly OK within her means, with the refugee “crisis” etc.

11. Most overrated leader ever. She appeased the Russians, and made Germany dependent on Russian gas.

    I can’t believe people called her the “leader of the free world.” Such a joke.

12. Cringe.