On Merkel – Der Spiegel (Melanie Amann, Klaus Wiegrefe):
‘Merkel proudly shows off her book. She is one of the very few people who already has a printed copy of the 700-page tome. Her co-author and long-time adviser Beate Baumann is also present for our conversation, but rarely says anything. The former chancellor is in high spirits, looking forward to explaining herself and her book.’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: Your memoirs, which you finished writing before the U.S. election, are set to be published in the coming days. In the book, you wish success for Kamala Harris "with all my heart.” What were your first thoughts when you learned of Donald Trump’s victory?
Merkel: That the public opinion polls were wrong once again. How many newspaper pages were filled with reports about how Harris could eke out a victory? And then you wake up at 6 a.m., look at your phone …
DER SPIEGEL: And?
Merkel: Sorrow. It was already a disappointment for me that Hillary Clinton didn’t win in 2016. I had hoped for it to turn out differently.
DER SPIEGEL: What do you think of Trump?
Merkel: In politics, if you don’t leave room for win-win situations and only see winners and losers, then it makes multilateralism extremely difficult.’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: What must a German chancellor know when it comes to dealing with Trump? Merkel: Trump was extremely curious and wanted to have precise knowledge of the details. But only to explore them for his own advantage, to find arguments that would strengthen him and weaken others. The more people were in the room, the greater was his need to be the winner. You can’t just chat with him. Every encounter is a competition: you or me.’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: So it’s not a phenomenon specific to the FDP? It has since been reported that Christian Lindner and other FDP leaders apparently spent months pushing for the collapse of the coalition.
Merkel: I can’t say anything about the specifics. Beyond that: I never experienced the FDP as an easy coalition partner. But they exist, and politics starts by recognizing reality.’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: We were struck by the fact that you describe only one real moment of happiness regarding your relationship with your party the CDU: Your election as chairwoman in 2000. You write: "Never again, not even as chancellor, would I experience a congress with such a feeling of unity between the CDU and myself.” Merkel: That was quite a special moment of the kind you don’t get too many of in a tenure as party leader. But I always felt comfortable inside the CDU. The party carried me for 18 years, which isn’t possible without the loyalty and solidarity of the members. I also always enjoyed going to party conventions, and in the evenings, I would sit down and chat with people for an eternity.’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: What shaped you more: Your identity as a woman, or your identity as an East German? Merkel: We spoke about that a lot during the writing of the book. I think that my identity as an East German was more defining. Life in the GDR constantly required one to have the courage to be authentic. I am not referring here to the courage of resistance fighters. Their courage was much greater than mine. For me, it was about muddling through without becoming bitter. Later, I often found myself looking at the West Germans, including colleagues of mine in the Bundestag, and wondering: What would they have done if the Stasi had tried to recruit them? Would they have been as courageous as they sound now?’
(…)
‘DER SPIEGEL: What’s next for you? Merkel: There are a lot of nice things: travel, meeting friends, reading, relaxing. I can easily imagine using the book as a starting point for speaking with young people about democracy, about the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, about the importance of compromises. I think that every politician must ask themselves: How tolerant am I of other opinions, whether they are held by political adversaries or others in my own party? Only when politicians set an example can people’s willingness to listen to each other grow again.’
Read the interview here.
Trump: every encounter is a competition.
And: politics starts by recognizing reality.
Very reasonable.
The problem is that too many politicians and too many voters don’t want to recognize reality or that their interpretations of reality differ from what is called the mainstream.
The slow decline of the postwar world order is among other things also the compartmentalization of this thing called reality.
You have your reality, I have mine.