Merkel Embellished With Highest German Honour Amid Reflection on Tenure

By Friederike Heine and Emma-Victoria Farr

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel was awarded the nation’s highest doable honour on Monday amid reflection on her 16-year tenure on the helm of Europe’s greatest financial system.

The primary feminine chief of Germany, who stepped down in December 2021, was adorned with the Grand Cross of the Order of Benefit for particular achievement by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Schloss Bellevue, Berlin.

On the occasion, attended by present chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and former nationwide soccer coach Juergen Klinsmann, Merkel spoke of “many good experiences” in what others had described to her because the “snakepit of politics”.

Solely two former chancellors of Germany have obtained the honour beforehand – Konrad Adenauer, the primary chief of post-war Germany, and Helmut Kohl, lauded as a key architect of German reunification.

Merkel is understood for steering Germany via the worldwide monetary disaster, the eurozone debt disaster and the COVID-19 pandemic, however has confronted criticism for her stance in direction of Russia because the nation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine final yr.

In November final yr, Merkel mentioned she had aimed to convene European talks with Vladimir Putin the yr earlier than his invasion of Ukraine however in the end didn’t see any risk of influencing the Russian president on the finish of her time period.

As a veteran chief within the European Union, different facets of her insurance policies have additionally come below fireplace. These embrace her choices to open Germany’s borders to refugees in 2015, and to part out nuclear energy.

The deputy head of her conservative CDU social gathering, Carsten Linnemann, accused her of “obtrusive errors”, telling broadcaster ntv that the exit from nuclear energy “was a mistake in the best way it was performed on the time, with out saying how we had been going to provide ourselves with power in a fairly self-sufficient means”.

In October, Merkel mentioned she had no regrets in regards to the course her authorities took concerning power coverage whereas in energy.

Former allies got here to Merkel’s defence, together with her earlier chief of employees Peter Altmaier telling broadcaster RTL that her achievements had been “acknowledged by many thousands and thousands of residents and worldwide”.

(Reporting by Friederike Heine, Emma-Victoria Farr and Andreas Rinke, Enhancing by Christina Fincher)

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