by Mikhail Zakharov
[REGNUM] On August 7, the Statistical Office of Germany published another evidence of the far from the best state of the national economy - the index of industrial production in June fell by 1.5% compared to May and by 1.7% compared to June last year. The statistics can be considered a confirmation of the overall disappointing assessment that the German Economic News recently gave - Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten: the energy crisis (caused by the rejection of Russian energy sources), coupled with other difficulties, is pulling the economy of the "German locomotive" to the bottom, and with it the economy the entire European Union.
In the former ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), they found the culprit for the mistakes that led to a disappointing situation - and this, curiously, is not the current Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but the former leader of the same CDU, ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Angela Merkel has become a disaster for the whole of Germany. She deprived the country of its future,” said CDU functionary Arnold Vaatz in an extended interview with the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
The article opens with a large photograph from Merkel's meeting with Vladimir Putin. The photo illustrates the main thesis of the functionary of the ex-ruling party. The mistakes of the CDU leader, which have accumulated towards the last term of her chancellorship (2018-2021) - including mistakes on the Russian and Ukrainian tracks - have led to the growth of the popularity of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party that advocates the restoration of relations with Russia . And most importantly, the further, the more the number of those who, if not positively, then neutrally, relates to the Russian leader, is growing, Vaatz concludes.
Merkel "broke Germany out of action by destroying her energy base, she destroyed the Bundeswehr, she erased the criteria for the stability of the euro from the agenda," the party leader lists the sins of his former leader. He especially highlights the “suicidal rejection of nuclear energy and coal” - a decision that was made by no means by the now ruling Social Democrats and the Greens, but precisely by the Merkel government.
On the other hand, Vaatz and those whose opinion he expresses accuse the ex-chancellor of demonstrating the weakness of Germany. Angela Merkel was reminded of the “green light for Nord Stream” (which made it possible for Russia to “use gas” against Germany - that is, gas supplies) and the simultaneous refusal to supply weapons to Ukraine. Merkel, we recall, announced this immediately after the Maidan, in 2014.
“Since then, the Russians have been thinking: Germany will give us freedom of action,” laments the Christian Democrat. The last straw was the “heroic flight” from Afghanistan (and not only the Americans, but also their German allies fled), which caused “Homeric laughter” in Russia, Vaatz states.
"THERE ARE MANY WHO WOULD LIKE TO RETURN THE GDR"
Against this background, he notes, the popularity of the AfD is growing, which intercepted the conservative agenda from the CDU, and at the same time, many Germans began to show respect for Vladimir Putin, the German politician points out. Those who vote for the “Alternative” and not only perceive the Russian leader as “the antipode of “wokeism” (the English neologism wokeism, denotes a modern left-liberal “agenda” with an emphasis on the rights of minorities, LGBT, etc.), states Vaatz.
“Putin is against gender politics, Putin is against climate alarmism: it turns out that he is our man,” the politician conveys the point of view of “those who understand Putin.”
Vaatz believes:
"There are many in the East [of Germany] who want the return of the GDR and adores Putin, because if he had been at the head of the Soviet Union in 1990, the GDR would still exist today."
But nostalgia is not the main stimulus for such sentiments, the main thing is the “despair of people” from the policies of recent decades, for which Merkel is responsible.
The opinion of this part of the German society was recently expressed by the co-chairman of the AfD Tino Khrupalla in an interview with the ZDF TV channel. In a nutshell, he stated that the authorities of the federal republic should follow only the national interests of Germany (read - not "general Western" or Euro-Atlantic), and in these interests - mutual understanding with Russia. Alternativa co-chair Alisa Weidel said in an interview with Die Welt that it was more beneficial for Germany to remain neutral in the Ukrainian conflict. Judging by the context of these interviews, they cannot be called "Russophile" - but they indicate that Russophobia is considered unproductive by the leaders of the German right.
MERKEL WAS ALSO SUSPECTED OF PRO-RUSSIAN SYMPATHIES
From the point of view of the CDU and other mainstream parties, expressed by Arnold Waatz, the Alternative for Germany should be "unelected". At the same time, as noted earlier, the AfD has caught up with Scholz's ruling Social Democrats in popularity, recent polls show that up to 23% of Germans can support the AfD.
On the other hand, the authorities continue to put pressure on all those "who are suspected of being too sympathetic to Russia and too active in 'building bridges' with Russia," German political scientist Alexander Rahr told IA Regnum. Moreover, under suspicion of a positive attitude towards Moscow is the same Angela Merkel - in company with another ex-chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, the expert notes.
Merkel is “very strongly criticized” for trying to have a constructive dialogue with Russia, primarily by the leaders of the Greens, which are part of the ruling coalition. The party in many respects ideologically follow the above-mentioned "Woakism" and at the same time - the Euro-Atlantic agenda - which can be judged by the behavior of the current Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock.
Long before the SVO, in 2018, the then opposition, including the same "greens", attacked Merkel with criticism for her "demonstrative closeness" to Vladimir Putin. At the time, Bild wondered if Merkel should be " too friendly" towards "authoritarian" leaders.
After Frau Merkel's resignation, it became even more convenient to criticize the ex-chancellor. In May of this year, The Wall Street Journal published the material “Did Merkel create the ground for a military conflict in Ukraine?”, where already well-known claims were made against the former German leader: and the conclusion of agreements with Moscow that made the economy of Germany and its neighbors dependent on the import of Russian energy resources , and in blocking the financing of the defense complex (because of which allegedly Germany can no longer resist Russia).
Gets not only alive, but already dead politicians. Alexander Rahr cites the example of the famous German statesman Egon Bahr (1922–2015), who in the time of Willy Brandt advocated détente in relations with our country. “ He generally died a long time ago, but his personality fell out of favor. Conferences and symposiums associated with his name are not held, because it does not suit the spirit of the time, ” said the German political scientist.
WHO CREATES THE FEAR OF "KREMLIN GERMANY"
“As for the AfD, the suspicion is directly raised against them - based on speculation - that they receive money from Moscow, are almost financed by the Kremlin, in order to destroy democratic foundations and turn Germany into a “pro-Kremlin,” Rahr notes . “ This is complete nonsense, but in the media this point of view is very popular.”
This point of view, including among the functionaries of large parliamentary parties, is promoted by various non-governmental organizations, think tanks and other groups of influence associated with Washington, senior researcher at the IMEMO RAS named after A.I. Primakov Alexander Kamkin .
An example, he says, is the CIA-affiliated think tank Atlantic Bridge, which, according to analysts in the journal International Relations, has a direct impact on the formation of public sentiment in Germany, in particular through work with youth. It is known that columnists from leading German publications such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bild and Spiegel cooperate with the Atlantic Bridge. It has been argued that Most's lobbyists were influential in the scandalous resignation of Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in 2011 (on charges of plagiarism) and replacing him with the more loyal Theodor de Mézières , and later with Ursula von der Leyen.
“Most politicians within mainstream parties and movements have been trained by American NGOs, they are the conductors of Western soft power,” Kamkin is sure. Under such conditions, any politician who deviates even slightly from the Euro-Atlantic general line is subjected to harsh criticism.
In such an atmosphere of Atlanticist dominance, where Berlin has become an object of American foreign policy, German politicians can hardly talk about national interests and establishing mutual understanding between Russia and Germany, experts say. The accusation of sympathy, and even more so of pandering to Moscow, can become a black mark. The transatlantic narrative is strong, which means that any politicians who are minimally inclined towards good neighborly relations with the Kremlin will be to blame for everything - from the weakness of the Bundeswehr to the growing popularity of "dangerous radicals" from the AfD.
