US Economy And The Road To Germany -- January 10, 2025

Locator: 44657GERMANY.

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Angela Merkel wrote a 736-page memoir to secure her crumbling legacy. The effort is backfiring.

Her new book, “Freedom”—published in late November in nearly 30 languages—is riling up even some of her most ardent supporters, in part because Merkel declines to consider that any of the policies of her four-term chancellorship, from 2005 to 2021, might have been misguided.

“Much pride, little self-reflection” was the headline that the powerful German state broadcaster ARD, the key media platform of Merkel’s time in power, put on its capital bureau’s report on the book’s launch. Merkel’s own political heirs in the Christian Democratic party say that publicity around the memoir is damaging their current election campaign. They blame their unpopularity on the challenges they inherited from Merkel and lament that voters are now reminded by the book that she—and by extension, her party—helped create the country’s problems.