Merkel's public interview War, record and retirement

Jun 7, 2022

Phoenix carries the complete June 7, 2022 Berliner Ensemble conversation between Alexander Osang and Angela Merkel. Osang opens with his profile and memories of interviewing her; Merkel later adds that a second interview took place after their initial meeting. She discusses adjusting to retirement, reading, exercise, access to information and her constituency. She describes a five-week solo Baltic break with exercise, books and discreet local people, and a private Florence–Rome cultural visit that she defends against Melnyk's criticism. Later she recalls a Soviet-era Caucasus journey with two companions, a short transit visa, a fourteen-day stay, camping and writing a Russian essay at Sochi airport before flying home. These remain her recollections, without inferred exact travel dates. She attributes earlier trembling spells to exhaustion after her mother's death, insufficient hydration and later anxiety, saying sitting during ceremonies helped; this is her own explanation. Merkel condemns Russia's invasion as unjustified and contrary to international law while defending her diplomacy. She recounts disagreement with Putin over the Soviet collapse in Sochi and later disputes a benign reading of the dog encounter, with qualifications about advance notice. She recalls the stalled Minsk process and the failed 2021 European-dialogue initiative, labels possible influences on Putin's timing speculation, and explains her earlier re-election decision mainly through refugee-policy responsibility. On Bucharest 2008 she gives political-readiness and retaliation concerns, recounts the no-immediate-MAP/eventual-membership compromise and explicitly says it cannot justify the present invasion. She says Minsk did not satisfy all Ukrainian interests or achieve the intended calm, but had EU and UN backing and gave Ukraine seven years to develop. Osang relays Melnyk's appeasement criticism; she rejects it, declines to apologize for attempting diplomacy and says she never expected trade to transform Putin. She defends defense-budget increases and the Bundeswehr's reputation while acknowledging equipment and procurement failings, coalition obstacles and possibly excessive earlier cuts. She still supports ending compulsory service. In a distinct Afghanistan exchange she disputes abandonment of political support, questions unrealistic aims and exclusion of the Taliban, expresses guilt over those left behind and says she preferred continuing the mission but had to accept the U.S. withdrawal decision. Merkel distinguishes Russian culture from the government's aggression, condemns Netrebko's political conduct while being uncertain about the location she recalls, and opposes collective cultural exclusion. She says an independent Putin initiative would require a German-government request, doubts its usefulness then and insists on Ukraine's involvement, saying Ukraine had not requested her help. She criticizes U.S. sanctions over Nord Stream 2, praises the conditional 2021 compromise with Biden and stresses that the invasion demands a different response and support for Ukraine. She accepts Merz's CDU leadership, affirms party membership and leaves current party decisions to active leaders. A brief memoir project, the existing three-speech book and signing conditions remain in the account. Osang closes with the theater's Ukraine relief collection announcement and a Ben-Gurion quotation. Questions, competing claims, personal recollections and all later qualifications remain in this complete source account.

At the June 7 conversation, Merkel says she was angered by U.S. economic sanctions against allied companies over Nord Stream 2 despite the allies' political disagreement. She thanks Biden for treating Germany as an ally and reaching a joint statement in summer 2021 while retaining U.S. opposition to the project. She recalls Ukrainian gas transit and a response if gas or politics were used as a weapon as its conditions. She also argues earlier that Putin invaded before the pipeline operated. Her answer stresses that the invasion changes the situation, makes Minsk history and requires a new response, including support for Ukraine. Her defense of earlier diplomacy and Germany's mediation-based arms restraint is expressly a position about the earlier period, not opposition to current support for Ukraine.