Gerhard Schröder didn’t rekindle many friendships with his interview in Der Spiegel today. (Not available yet in English translation). If anything, he used the interview to settle some old scores from the election over a year ago, and take shots at the Grand Coalition and Chancellor Merkel ("no leadership"). In particular, he singles out the leaders of the major German trade unions to blame for his defeat at the polls. With respect to foreign policy and international relations, Schröder is very defensive about Russia and his ties to Vladimir Putin.
I was particularly interested in his take on US-German relations. The conventional wisdom is that Angela Merkel has vastly improved the tone in transatlantic relations through her personal friendship with President Bush. Schröder will have none of that:
SPIEGEL: Gegenüber Amerika waren Sie weniger taktvoll.
Schröder: Nein, überhaupt nicht. Ich bin ja alles andere als ein Gegner Amerikas. Sonst wäre ja die Hälfte der Gesellschaft in den USA das auch. Wir haben in Deutschland – das ist zugegeben nicht das Problem Ihrer Zeitschrift – in wesentlichen Teilen der Publizistik das Problem, dass jede sachlich begründete Kritik an Amerika als Antiamerikanismus diffamiert wird. Das ist natürlich falsch.
(trns. Spiegel : You were not as tactful towards America (D.V. compared G.S.’s attitude towards Russia) Schröder: No, that is wrong. I do not oppose America at all. If that were the case then one half of all Americans would be opposed to America. We have a situation in Germany – this does not apply to Der Spiegel – where the press distorts any rational criticism of America as anti-Americanism. That is simply wrong.)
Meanwhile, about 200,000 trade unionists took to the streets in several German cities today to protest the economic policies of the Grand Coalition. They chanted "Hoch die Unterschicht!" (Long Live the Underclass) – referring to the growing poverty in the country which began on Gerhard Schröder’s watch and his introduction of the Hartz IV "reforms".
0 comment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_eu/germany_schroeder_bush
While meetings with Bush at that time were friendly, Schroeder said he could not reconcile himself with the feeling that religion was the driving force behind many of Bush’s political decisions.
“What bothered me, and in a certain way made me suspicious despite the relaxed atmosphere, was again and again in our discussions how much this president described himself as ‘God-fearing,'” Schroeder wrote, adding he is a firm believer in the separation of church and state.
——————————–
I’m eagerly looking forward to Schroeder’s memoirs. Obviously he can’t say as much about Bush or Putin as we would like. But I hope criticisms like above turn some heads.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/10/23/god/index.html