Merkel: It is good that someone else is coming to the chancellery

Angela Merkel admits that she was relieved when, last Tuesday, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier officially handed her the document of her “dismissal” and expressed gratitude for the opportunity she was given to remain in office for 16 years. “It’s good for someone else to come now,” she said of her successor, but defended her decisions on refugees and the pandemic and warned against the danger of “forgetting history.”

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the now-acting chancellor called for “not to forget the important lessons from history” and recalled that the multilateral world order was created because of the lessons of World War II.

“One danger,” he points out, “is that Europeans take the European Union for granted.” It is a recurring pattern in history that people begin to treat structures with lightness when the generations that created them are no longer alive, Ms Merkel explains.

Concern about the pandemic

In the same interview, the chancellor also warns against any carelessness in dealing with the pandemic and expresses her concern about the continuing increase in cases in Germany.

I am “very concerned” about the evolution of the numbers of the dead and the hospitalized, he reports and calls on the citizens to be vaccinated. “For example, the fact that two or three million people over the age of 60 are still unvaccinated makes me very sad, because that could make a difference – both for them personally and for society as a whole,” he said.

Asked about the case of Joshua Kimich, a Bayern Munich player who refuses to be vaccinated citing the lack of data on the long-term effects of vaccines, Angela Merkel first notes that in Germany vaccination is mandatory, but it is not recommended arguments and Mr. Kimich hopes to reconsider. “He is known as a footballer who studies things,” adds the outgoing Chancellor.

At the same time, it defends the sometimes drastic restrictions on individual freedoms during the pandemic. He said it was the duty of the state to protect the health of as many people as possible and to prevent overcrowding in hospitals. “Of course, one can disagree with this or that measure,” he said, adding that the most controversial measure was exit restrictions, and that the pandemic was particularly difficult for children and young people. “I knew it at all times, we demanded too much from them,” he says characteristically.

Refugee data

Angela Merkel also referred to the refugee crisis and the decisions she took in 2015, explaining that from the very beginning she had thought about the solution of the EU-Turkey cooperation, “but it took a while”.

She acknowledges that she, as chancellor, has always been politically responsible for what was happening – positive or negative. “Both for the good times, where we warmly welcomed the refugees and for the dark hours, for example on New Year’s Eve in Cologne Square, where monstrous things happened, in which refugees participated, but also others, who were here more for a long time “, says Mrs. Merkel, referring to the cases of rape and sexual harassment by refugees on New Year’s Eve 2016 in Cologne.

Germany “can not regulate immigration on its own, at least not sustainably, only as part of the EU and in this case only together with Turkey”, the chancellor added, noting that the Brussels-Ankara agreement “was successful and is up to and today beneficial for both sides “. In fact, it characterizes it, together with the guarantee of the savers in the financial crisis of 2008, as a “decision with a great impact” during these 16 years. “This attention to crises and the constant effort to prevent or at least react promptly make the chancellor’s job so demanding,” he concludes.