‘Freedom’ is an autobiographical book by Angela Merkel, former German Chancellor from 2005 to 2021. It retraces her national and European political career.
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00:00This is the political book of the year. In an autobiography entitled Freedom, former Chancellor Angela Merkel looks back on her 16 years at the helm of Germany.
00:11A period that has left its mark on the European Union and is now causing a stir among MEPs.
00:18In the book, Merkel talks about how she thought it was an illusion to assume that the path to NATO membership would protect Ukraine and Georgia from Putin.
00:27Well, I think that's a mistake. I think that would have been a very, very clear message that, you know, Georgia and Ukraine joining the NATO would have pushed Putin to solving the question, is he ready to attack NATO?
00:47Question, is he ready to attack Georgia or Ukraine is much easier to answer and he did answer. In 2008, he attacked during the opening of the Olympics, he attacked Georgia.
00:58In the memoir, she also quotes Germany's dependence on Russian gas, saying that it arose without any ever being transported through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
01:08Merkel also mentions Greece and how during the financial crisis, forcing a country to leave the monetary union could have had unforeseen consequences.
01:34I think she has a very bad legacy when it comes to the euro crisis. What they did was that they saved the German banks, they made sure that they got repaid and they sacrificed the people of Greece, but also people in Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
01:49This example, we should praise her achievements back then, because obviously the eurozone was on the brink of collapse and Greece as a country, as a nation was on the brink of collapse.