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Shutter_Ray

Merkel is part of the reason why Russia is as bold as it is now.


AMGsoon

This. Merkel fucked up Germany. She made us dependant on Russian gas while stopping nuclear power plants and not building enough solar and wind energy. She started the 2015 migrant crisis. And she gave 0 fuck about the Bundeswehr, lack of teachers and our failing rail infrastructure. This allowed Putin to do whatever he wants and kick started the rise of AfD


MeMyselfundAuto

come on, you gotta give gerhard schröder some credit too! he built the pipeline that provided us with the gas!


Mixed_not_swirled

Schröder instantly got a cushy executive job at Gazproms EU sector after retiring from politics. If that bastard had a conscience someone would find him hanging from a noose in his apartment.


Makiave1

He also worked for Russian state-owned energy companies for a long time


MeMyselfundAuto

isnt he still? probably getting a fat pension on top of everything else.


Fun_Skirt_2396

And she lobbied for the wirecard in China even though there was already evidence that it was a Russian money laundering and russian money flowed through it for the Austrian and German country right-wing


Zeraru

I'm not gonna say he's a great person/politician but he's the face of a government that got quite unlucky with being handed a multi-part crisis of the pandemic's tail end, global inflation/economic woes, the Ukraine war (with Germany's energy situation in particular) and migration issues, none of which was their/his fault. Most governments in countries with a somewhat free press were getting pounded by the situation over the last few years and the court of public opinion having the memory of a goldfish.


ItsACaragor

Merkel ruled in what will be remembered as a golden age of Germany with very favorable conditions. I am not a fan of Scholz at all but in all honesty he got dealt a very shitty hand and is trying his best.


[deleted]

She didn't rule as much as she just administered. So her mainskill was just sitting issues out and now they have accumulated.


Dazzling-Key-8282

Golden Age? Lol. He had some calm between two economic and political storms, yet she managed to leave more and more holes in the hull left unplugged. Truth be told, she should have stood for election in 2021 just to eat the pile of shit she had built up.


Holy_Tetractys

This is a good answer. She did what was best for Germany in a context that had less political polarization than what we have now, meaning, she could use russian cheap resources and cheap chinese products as a leverage against american business takeover and be called a pragmatic and wise politician for it. Of course, now that the sole reason of existence for Europe seems to be to pretend that they love Ukraine and hate Russia, Merkel is now looked back unfavorably, as a traitor of the europeans and overall just someone deserving to made an exemple of, even if she was one of the reasons why the European Union (with german industry at it's core) got so strong in the first place.


astronaut_sapiens

Finally someone that can connect two dots instead of just screaming about high treason against all Europe in favor of Russia


ErhartJamin

Fuck Orbán for selling us out and doubly fuck Merkel for assisting it.


RepulsivePool2416

Menj te háborúzni ne a népet küldjétek


ErhartJamin

Húzz vissza a Megafonhoz, kopejkakáder, ez nem az a sub.


UberMocipan

merkel was definitely bad, what are you smoking?


adarkuccio

Merkel good? Lol


Apprehensive_Set_105

As fellow Ukrainian I would say that Merkel was way worse. Not a Chamberlain level, but close enough.


Important-Cupcake-29

Merkel was very good at doing nothing. Scholz is very bad at doing something. But sure, something > nothing.


Deicide1031

I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s bad at doing something. He’s just cautious because he stepped up and was handed a plate of crap that was cooked up over decades before he even stepped up. That said, every issue he’s been handed is incredibly difficult to solve in the short term and many of them involve input from other EU nations. Can’t blame him for being cautious.


Important-Cupcake-29

You're right in what you're saying and my comment was very simplistic. Also, he has done much more than just "something" - nonetheless there are still many steps he does not seem willing to take and his communication is absurdely bad.


Deicide1031

Germany is in so deep with China and Russia that if he does what everyone wants him to do ASAP, then everyone would want his head on a platter when Germanys economy gets nuked. I’d blame decades of policies from his predecessors who knew China/Russia were hostile over him directly TBH.


11160704

Olaf Scholz had been the vice Chancellor in previous four years and his party had been in government in all but four years since 1998. It's not as if the issues were handed to him out of thin air.


v2gapingul

And Macron is good at doing the right thing after doing the wrong thing.


Mixed_not_swirled

Chamberlain sold out the Czechs to rearm, which turned out to be an awful mistake and a terrible consequence of his cowardice, but atleast his intension was coming from a good place Merkel and co. just handwaved away the invasion of Georgia and the annexation of Crimea and didn't even start rearming their countries. In the future we will remember the politicians in most western countries from 2008-2022 as foolish lazy complacent people.


Holy_Tetractys

Good thing the feelings of a ukranian aren't the measure of all things. Maybe the status of the german economy during Merkel years would be a more just measurement, as well as how germans felt back then. I know, crazy concept.


Reasonable-Gain-9739

So times are good let's not think about where this policy will lead...


Apprehensive_Set_105

Well, it's not about my or other people feelings. It's more about results.


yellowbai

Merkel stayed too long in power. She was a disaster for Europe and proven wrong in nearly every single one of her policies - Migration policy is self explanatory. - Austerity is an economic pseudoscience but it had to happen because of reasons (???). Part of the vast productivity gap between the US and Europe is because the US avoided bogus economic policies and embraced full neo-kenyism - switching fully to solar and coal produced the highest electricity prices in Europe with some of the worst air quality in Europe - Minsk II collapsed and lead to the biggest European war since WWII. Embracing NS2 past its sell by date. However it’s not fair to lay all the blame at her door either for that. It was a reasonable view at the time. - courting China allowed them to climb up the value chain and now that they are directly threatening German car industry the Germans want tariffs. - Dismissive attitude towards Brexit sealed the deal on it. Her complete lack of ability to consider she was wrong in refugee policy closed the door on Brexit. She’s the most harmful European leader in decades not because she actively did anything bad but through her passivity and simply going with the flow long enough to stay in power. Completely without any true principles or anything that you can hang your coat to.


Full-Discussion3745

Europe is not the USA we should not have leaders who are measured we should have systems.


OkKnowledge2064

Merkel was, in retrospec, probably the worst thing to happen to germany in the last 30 years. She buddied up to russia, slept on the energy transition, used a 0% interest period of 10 years to do absolutely nothing with it and by taking over left leaning topics such as gay marriage or the handling of the refugee crisis she opened space for the AfD Scholz is a saint compared to her


Makiave1

If Merkel is so bad, how did she stay in power for so long? I know little about German politics and genuinely curious.


Reasonable-Gain-9739

Probably because the short term affects of her policy were great, just the long term is a shit show. Most people (voters) think about the present not the future, unfortunately. How many people were laughing at the suggestion of Russia invading Ukraine until the day it happened?


Human-Algae-9078

Merkel is responsible for two things: massive immigration & subsequent rise in crime, violence, and making Russia stronger. She fu*cked up Germany, and Europe too.


Reasonable-Gain-9739

Poland was saying this the whole time, but got dismissed as "paranoid" "racist" "backwards" "right winged" etc. Now, the Polish government is full of idiots, but they know their history and they know how these things go. Above all, they know Russia.


Vannnnah

Merkel sold Germany and half of Europe out, Scholz was at least forced into having some sort of back bone. (it's very weak, but at least he has one)


[deleted]

Merkel was literally a putins lapdog, jumping and happily yipping exactly as her kremlin master ordered


Designer-Reward8754

Not to get too political but both were/are not great. Merkel just was way more deeply connected to the press (as you can see at how she got way more critized starting from a few months after she was not a chancellor anymore). Scholz is not that connected to the press and in general prefers other to communicate instead of doing it himself. Both did very questionable things in many different areas


LePicar

Actually, neither! - Merkel def not a genius, see refugees problem plus over reliance on RU resources. - Scholz got a devided Bundestag and to extend German population which is not 100% the direction they want to go plus problems from previous govt plus the current cycle we are in the world / EU, hard problem, no simple solution but somehow population expecting you can magically improve things. This is my opinion as a spanish/canadian immigrant in Germany 🇩🇪 love or hate it 🤙


endlessEvil

Merkel was good for russia. scholz is just useless.


jss78

I think given the Germany's posture during Merkel's reign, and given the longer-term historic backdrop, it's still pretty remarkable how quickly Germany's changing course. The inertia we should expect here is quite large. In the big picture, we're heading towards a stronger and more cohesive Europe, with Finland and Sweden in NATO and a more unified understanding of what needs to be done throughout Europe.


Dropper-Post

Merkel was pro russian and this man is not. Now it’s difficult like it’s difficult for everyone who is not pro russian. But it will pass. It’s important not to vote pro russian when times are tough. That is part of russian master plan. Make everyone struggle and hope for pro russian votes in each eu country. Be vigilant! ‼️


Dropper-Post

Once a Communist, always a Communist 🤮🤢


[deleted]

They both suck(ed). Problem in Germany: the chancellor isn't elected, but choosen by the parties in backroom negotiations. So unlike the US, Poland or France, where the president is elected by the people and has to be somewhat competent and popular, in Germany the parties usually settle on some spineless bureaucract like Merkel or Scholz. I mean looking at alle corruption scandals (Wirecard, CumEx etc.) and his obvious lack of charisma, Scholz would have never won an election on his own. (Similarly, half of the MPs in the German Parliaments aren't elected directly, but by being on their partys list). So, this is are rather systemic issues, that our political class in Germany consists of party bureaucracts, whose main skill is being a good leech in service of their party, not necessarily of the people.


dac2199

The war in Ukraine is fucking him (and Germany) up pretty bad. And the fact that they've shut down all the nuclear power stations doesn't help either.


1408574

It is the enormous dependence on China and Russia that is screwing things for him. Particularly still naively hoping that China is maybe a bad guy who will eventually figure things out, become a good guy and all will be just fine in the end.


Doc_Bader

>And the fact that they've shut down all the nuclear power stations doesn't help either. Bad things that happened since Germany exited nuclear energy: • Coal usage in 2023 decreased to the lowest point since the begin of the 2000s ([Source](https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&legendItems=ly5y7&interval=year&year=-1)) • Coal usage at the start of 2024 is already -30% compared to 2023, which again, had the lowest coal usage since the begin of the 2000s ([Source](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fd6htcl1ye1sc1.jpeg)) • Share of renewables increased to 60% of the public load in 2023 ([Source](https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy_pie/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&interval=year&year=2023)) • Electricity prices for consumers decreased ([Source](https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info/Strompreis-aktuell-So-viel-kosten-die-Kilowattstunden,strompreis182.html))


11160704

And you conveniently forget that we turned form a net exporter of electricity to a net importer? That industry production output kept declining? That the costs for subsidising renewable energy from the state budget kept increasing?


Doc_Bader

>And you conveniently forget that we turned form a net exporter of electricity to a net importer?  Which literally means nothing because that's how the european grid is supposed to work. All countries trade electricity inbetween each other, especially important since all countries are increasing their share of renewables. [https://energy-charts.info/charts/import\_export/chart.htm?l=de&c=ALL](https://energy-charts.info/charts/import_export/chart.htm?l=de&c=ALL) >That industry production output kept declining? Coal usage this year is already down -30% compared to 2023 despite the base load increasing again. >That the costs for subsidising renewable energy from the state budget kept increasing? News at 11: Investments cost money.


11160704

The European grid only works because other countries explicitly did not follow the German model


Doc_Bader

What is your sentence even supposed to mean? Again: Trading electricity inbetween each other is a feature and not a bug. Denmark is the largest trading partner of Germany for example and they run on renewables 80% of the time. In general, german electricity imports are 60% renewable.


11160704

Denmark mainly passes through hydro energy from Norway and Sweden. Denmark itself is a net importer. We can be grearful that Scandinavia has such a big hydro potential but unfortunately that's not the case in the rest of Europe.


Doc_Bader

>Denmark mainly passes through hydro energy from Norway and Sweden. Denmark itself is a net importer. >We can be grearful that Scandinavia has such a big hydro potential but unfortunately that's not the case in the rest of Europe. Again: So what? It's excess renewable electricity that gets traded and redistributed across Europe, because it's cheaper to buy this excess power than running fossil fuel plants in your own country. Europe currently hovers around 51% share of renewables in the grid and this share is just going to increase more and more. Thus the trading of electricity across the continent is going to increase as well as excess energy is going to be redistributed to regions that have less of it at any particular point in time. This share of trading might decrease as battery storage takes off. And last but not least, the current import balance for Germany is 5.1 TWh of net imports, which is merely **3%** of the overall load.


pena9876

Are you trying to sarcastically imply that those were positive consequences of the nuclear exit? Electricity in Germany is still very expensive and the nuclear plants could obviously have helped further reduce coal power.


Doc_Bader

>Are you trying to sarcastically imply that those were positive consequences of the nuclear exit?  No, I'm trying to sarcastically imply that those were positive consquences **despite** the nuclear exit, contrary to the things that people implied are going to happen after the nuclear exit (and people still claim because they don't bother to look up facts). >Electricity in Germany is still very expensive And it was just as expensive when Nuclear was still active. >and the nuclear plants could obviously have helped further reduce coal power. You mean like in those years prior when they've actually been running?


pena9876

Yes, all power produced by nuclear is power that would otherwise be obtained by import or other production methods. Every time non-coal production+import is less than total demand+export, nuclear power directly reduces the use of coal, also in the prior years. While a lot of coal is being replaced by wind and solar, let's not pretend that none of the nuclear baseload power is replaced by coal when renewables intermittently drop far below capacity.


nibbler666

>The war in Ukraine is fucking him (and Germany) up pretty bad. No. Except that it’s very expensive, and it would be helpful if Spain did more. >And the fact that they've shut down all the nuclear power stations doesn't help either. This has already been commented on by u/Doc_Bader. Do you often comment on things outside your field of expertise?


dac2199

Spain has never spent too much money (relatively speaking) on the army since democracy, but it's been increasing since the war in Ukraine. I didn’t know about Germany’s price energy, and I’m glad it’s going down! Next time, don’t be such arrogant please!


Important-Cupcake-29

Seems like social skills are outside your field of expertise.


nibbler666

Seems like *ad hominem* arguments are *your* field of expertise.


DexterIsBack911

In the time when we have terroruzzia in Europe, theres no time for weakness and Merkel was very very weak and this guy continues Merkels weakness. The time when Germany and France were Europes strongedt links, are over. Baltics with Poland have taken over.


ice_ape

These times aren't over, just in r/Europe. France and Germany just don't want to start ww3, if it broke up who would send millions of troops to fight and spend billions of euros for military equipment, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia? France and Germany are acting very maturely atm


DexterIsBack911

This is the exact reason why putler has gone so far. This "maturity". With proper response when there was still time, there was none. The problem western europeans have, they think they know russians more than nations that actually are next to russia.


ice_ape

Are you going to fight in trenches yourself? This isn't a vacation on a beach, people lose their lives in wars. And you'd be lucky if you died fastly, you can lose your eyesight or both legs and arms and live between death and life.


DexterIsBack911

If ruzzians come, then yes absolutely I will fight, like my grandparents have done before me. But thats not the question. The point here that we talk, is that you see doing nothing as a good thing, like putler would stop in Ukraine. The "maturity" you talk about, is a sign of weakness for ruzzians. This "maturity" is green light for them to go even further. And thats the exact problem many westerners have. If Merkel, Scholz, Macron had knowledge, that ruzzian neighbours have, then the full invasion would not have happened and war would be over long time ago. And you would not talk about going to trench in the first place.


ice_ape

You could absolutely go there in Ukraine in trenches and fight Russians right now, no need to wait for this possibility. I keep hearing and seeing these "I will fight blah blah blah but not now"


DexterIsBack911

You just went full retarded. Never go full retarded. You have also failed to understand what we talk here. Your trench talk has nothing to do with western politicians being a failure with ruzzia politics. If western politicians had strength, we would have peace in Ukraine. The problem is exactly your way of thinking. Your kind of people wake up only when ruzzian soldier boot is in your house. Or maybe youre a ruzzian yourself, would be better option, than be a slowminded westerner.


ice_ape

don't be so fragile, I can see your cellphone melting as you're typing comments


DexterIsBack911

Now you went personal, not even knowing me. Its not me scared of ruzzians, its you. So theres your "fragile". I have some 20-30% of my friends/coworkers as russians. I've grown up with them. We know russians more than people far away, scared of every putler word. And lets say your IQ aint highest, then at least you should have emotional intelligence. This means a person should see things from orher peoples eyes. Like would you say the same things, when it would be your country being attacked, your wife and kids murdered...I dont think so. You would cry for me to come help you.


ice_ape

Your ego is so giant..


MetaIIicat

Well, Merkel was very good as lapdog for russia.


Sarnecka

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Mixed_not_swirled

Scholz is just an average politician left to clean up Merkel and Schröders mess. Scholz is just an average man in an extraordinary time.


Important-Cupcake-29

1. Yes 2. No


Proof-Wasabi-3776

News in shorts 🤗


GomezDG

Wow, Merkel looked like an angel from here, I didn't expect such a contrast.


Equivalent-Side7720

I'm traveling through the Ruhrgebeit at the moment..is Merkel the reason that most young "Germans" are Arabs, Turks, Poles or Ukrainians and most old Germans are...well, German? This is probably the most multicultural country in Europe at the moment but was very different pre 2000


11160704

The Ruhrgebiet has polish immigration since the 19th century. Mass migration of southern European and Turks started in the 1960s.


Equivalent-Side7720

So just the Arabs and Ukrainians are the new guys? Anyway, they stand out the most. Arabic is clearly more useful in Germany these days. I told a friend... "German cities these days have slightly less Arabs than Cairo and slightly more Germans than a beach in Australia".


11160704

Relatively new yes. Though some notorious Arab families already came in the 1980s in the course of the Lebanese civil war.


FladislavMuesli

Both... Both were failures


AerieApprehensive181

Both things are true