Some members of the former Chancellor’s party criticized the award for its haste and dubiousness against the backdrop of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, April 17, received Germany’s highest state award – the Federal Cross of the Order of Merit. Before him, only two former heads of government have been awarded this award, Politico reports.
Merkel received the Federal Cross from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In his half-hour speech, Steinmeier called Merkel an “unprecedented politician” who successfully led Germany through difficult times, including the 2008 financial crisis and the 2015 refugee crisis.
The ex-chancellor himself spoke for only five minutes, thanked for the invitation and award, and also expressed confidence that there is a good side to politics.
At the same time, some of Merkel’s party members from the CDU/CSU bloc, none of whom were invited to the award ceremony, expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the former Chancellor received the award so quickly after leaving in politics, even against the backdrop. of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Thus, the CDU’s top functionary Andreas Redder called the awarding of Merkel the Federal Cross a year and a half after the end of her chancellorship a “mistake”, calling her position on Russia one of the worst foreign policy mistakes of Germany. .
Merkel’s longtime finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble also warned it was too early to judge whether he should be added to the list of Germany’s “great” chancellors.
Earlier it was reported that the German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann expressed the opinion that it was Angela Merkel’s policy, which she followed after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, that most influenced Russia’s subsequent release of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
Merkel said the war did not surprise her
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Source: korrespondent
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