Clouds over Merkel legacy as invasion lays flaws bare

Clouds over Merkel legacy as invasion lays flaws bare

BERLIN: Up to the final hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, former chancellor Angela Merkel had been touted as the person favored by Germans to try to talk President Vladimir Putin out of the conflict. But as Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, a shadow has fallen on Merkel’s 16 years in office, with some observers now questioning if her detente policies with Putin had in fact left Germany, and Europe, vulnerable.

Once hailed as the leader of the free world, the veteran center-right leader has been accused by some of increasing Europe’s reliance on Russian energy and neglecting Germany’s defense in what appeared to be a devastating miscalculation of Putin’s ambitions. Merkel’s push for diplomacy and bids to bind regimes to treaties and business contracts now look like “an error”, conservative daily Die Welt, long critical of Merkel, charged.

“What Germany and Europe has experienced over the last days is nothing short of a reversal of Merkel’s policies of guaranteeing peace and freedom through treaties with despots,” it wrote. Over the last decade, Germany’s energy reliance on Russia rose from 36 percent of its total gas imports in 2014 to 55 percent currently, with the deal for the controversial