Merkel was considered a long-successful politician, having served for 16 years, but she is now facing a flood of criticism claiming that her policy direction and judgments on major national matters were mostly wrong.

Merkel accelerated [the process] in 2011.

The result was predictable: electricity rates skyrocketed. It was as if she became a traitor to not only Germany but all of Europe overnight.

Hello, this is Son Jin-seok's Money Watch. This time, I would like to focus on a single leader and delve deeply into former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Since leaving office, Merkel has faced significant criticism not only within Germany but across Europe.

I intend to discuss why she has been plagued by such criticism since stepping down in 2021, despite having served for 16 years and being regarded as a long-successful politician.

Although it is hindsight, criticism is pouring in that Merkel's policy direction and judgments on major national matters were mostly wrong.

Yes, that is correct. The EU Parliament recently announced three former and current heads of state as recipients of the highest grade of the Common Order of the European Union.

Along with former Chancellor Merkel, former Polish President Lech Wałęsa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were selected.

European media reported that when former Chancellor Merkel was called, loud boos erupted inside the parliament instead of applause. Why were there boos?

Merkel was the one who spearheaded Europe's conciliatory gestures toward Russia; however, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she effectively became a traitor to not only Germany but the entire European continent overnight.

The British weekly news magazine *The Economist* summarized Merkel's 16-year tenure as "triple dependence." It stated that this "triple dependence" —relying on the United States for defense, China for exports, and Russia for natural gas —made Germany's situation difficult.

Immediately after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011, Merkel accelerated the nuclear phase-out.

By reducing operating nuclear power plants and filling the resulting energy shortage, she relied on Russian natural gas and coal; this constituted a system entirely dependent on Russia.

Just before the 2022 war between Russia and Ukraine, Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas, 56% of its coal, and 33% of its oil.

In short, Russia held Germany's energy security in its hands. Under these circumstances, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany's imports of Russian natural gas were effectively blocked.

The West imposed sanctions to block energy imports from Russia, and Russia also shut down natural gas pipelines heading toward Europe. The result is obvious: electricity prices have skyrocketed.

According to the energy information firm Global Petrol Prices, Germany's electricity rate was $0.404 per kilowatt-hour over the three years from 2023 to 2025.

This was 46% higher than that of neighboring France, 2.2 times that of the U.S., 3.2 times that of South Korea, and 5.3 times that of China.

With electricity rates this high, the cost gap with foreign companies becomes enormous, inevitably causing German companies' price competitiveness to decline significantly.

Nevertheless, Germany pushed ahead with its nuclear phase-out according to schedule and completely shut down its nuclear power plants in the spring of 2023.

The problem is that this failure in energy policy is irreversible. Current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a proponent of nuclear power; however, , he believes that a return to nuclear power is virtually impossible because restarting plants currently undergoing decommissioning would require a budget comparable to that of building new ones.

Chancellor Merz stated, "The nuclear phase-out is a wrong policy, but... the decision is irreversible," and "It is regrettable, but that is the reality," she said.

To prepare for the post-nuclear era, Merkel adopted the Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline as an alternative, which would transport Russian natural gas directly to Germany.

Russia is a country that maintains its vast territory by investing heavily in defense using the money generated from exporting large amounts of energy resources.

Merkel, who was friendly toward Russia, essentially implemented a German version of the Sunshine Policy. She hoped that if she guaranteed Russia a certain level of profit , by allowing it to sell natural gas stably and easily through the pipeline, Russia would not invade Europe.

From Germany's perspective, the plan was to import Russian natural gas cheaply and quickly after the nuclear phase-out, and to generate profit by reselling the surplus to other European countries.

However, Merkel's plan went completely awry due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It ended up being a case of Merkel being stabbed in the back after staking the fate of the German economy on Russian natural gas; furthermore, it resulted in her effectively funding Putin's war.

The United States, Poland, and the Baltic states all repeatedly warned Merkel regarding the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline.

This gas pipeline Europe strongly opposed Russia, citing concerns that energy resources would become dependent and be exploited as a political weapon.

Nevertheless, Merkel did not change her stance and ignored the warnings, only to suffer a harsh betrayal. It can be said that Merkel has had a pro-Russian disposition since childhood.

She moved to East Germany with her father, a pastor, and spent her early years there.

Consequently, she received an East German-style education; during her adolescence, she won a Russian language competition and even visited Moscow.

Simply put, Merkel is more comfortable speaking Russian than English. As for Putin, he served as a KGB agent in East Germany for a long time during his youth, so he speaks German well.

Consequently, when Merkel and Putin met, conversations would occasionally take place where Merkel spoke in Russian and Putin responded in German. There were even stories that Putin, who was strong in psychological warfare as a KGB agent, held Merkel in the palm of his hand and manipulated her as he pleased.

However, Merkel has a phobia of dogs after being bitten by a neighbor's dog in 1995.

Yet, it has been said that during the summit with Merkel in 2007, Putin unleashed a huge dog named Connie into the meeting room, attempting a form of taming while subtly threatening Merkel.

Many point out that while Merkel took conciliatory steps toward Putin and Russia, it was a major mistake that she failed to change her attitude toward Russia following the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, an event she should have done so.

During the Merkel era, under the pretext of maintaining peace and fiscal soundness, Germany cut corners on the defense budget to the extreme.

As a result, it has been repeatedly pointed out that a significant number of the German military's tanks, fighter jets, and helicopters have become inoperable due to a shortage of parts or maintenance.

Particularly in 2018, a report by the news magazine Spiegel shocked Europe; it revealed that out of the 128 Eurofighter fighter jets in the German Air Force, only four were ready for immediate combat deployment after accounting for the breakdowns.

It was an undeniably shameful situation, leading to widespread criticism that the German military was a "paper tiger." This was actually the reason why Germany, as a leader in Europe, was unable to provide proper military support when the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out.

In 2011, Merkel abolished Germany's conscription system, which had been in place for 55 years, and transitioned to a volunteer military.

This was also intended to cut costs; however, the country has since suffered from a severe troop shortage. Around the time of German reunification, the military force numbered around 500,000, but this continued to shrink, falling to the 100,000 range by the latter half of Merkel's term.

Consequently, discussions to return to conscription are currently emerging within German political circles.

Merkel regarding security, she also faced significant criticism for "free-riding." In fact, during Merkel's tenure, Germany spent mostly just over 1% of its GDP on defense.

They spent less money relying on the U.S. forces stationed in Germany; consequently, the German military ended up becoming a rusty force.

Furthermore, following the war between Russia and Ukraine, Germany belatedly poured massive amounts into defense spending, reaching nearly 2% of its GDP, which has placed a severe strain on its finances.

Merkel accepted over one million refugees during her term. The decision to accept a large number of refugees, primarily Syrians, around 2015 was praised for its humanitarian nature.

It was also an expression of confidence, suggesting that Germany was capable of embracing this level of support.

Chancellor Merkel emphasized at the time, "We can do it." However, politically, it brought about a fierce backlash.

With the sudden influx of a large number of refugees, dissatisfaction among the German public grew as tax money was used to support them.

In particular, low-income groups and those living in the former East Germany who were not well-off raised complaints asking why they, as German citizens, were being treated worse than refugees.

This ultimately led to the far-right party. It is pointed out that she provided the decisive pretext for the rise of the 'Alternative for Germany' party, which completely shook up the German political landscape.

Furthermore, Merkel damaged EU solidarity by accepting too many refugees and adopting a stance of telling other EU member states, "You should accept them too." During Merkel's tenure, Germany relied too heavily on China as a trading partner.

Merkel made 12 official visits to China during her 16-year term and insisted on a "change through trade" policy aimed at increasing trade with China.

She viewed China as an easy export target and calculated that this would significantly boost Germany's exports.

Just as she had relied on Russia for energy, Merkel repeated the approach of relying on authoritarian states for economic gain with China, but this strategy also ended in failure.

Looking at Germany's trade data, in 2009, China ranked second as an import partner and eighth as an export partner.

Even then, imports from China were less than those from the Netherlands and were almost equal to those from France.

However, in 2022, immediately after Merkel stepped down, China became an overwhelming import partner. It has become the number one spot and the fourth largest export destination.

With dependence on China as a trading partner becoming excessively high, imports have increased much more significantly than exports from Germany's perspective.

The trade data from the German Federal Statistical Office last year is particularly shocking. Germany suffered a record-breaking trade deficit with China amounting to 89.3 billion euros, or 153 trillion won.

However, looking at this, exports were 81.3 billion euros and imports were 170.6 billion euros ; this means that exports were less than half of imports, and the trade deficit was larger than the export value.

I apologize to the German people, but to put it bluntly, It is no exaggeration to say that Germany has effectively become China's pushover.

South Korea is also suffering from a trade imbalance with China; however, as of last year, exports to China still accounted for about 93% of imports.

In Germany's case, imports of Chinese-made electric vehicle batteries, computers, and smartphones were massive.

As this dependence on China has increased, Germany has fallen into a dilemma. While China's technological advancement is rapid, sluggish consumption due to population decline and a contraction in the real estate market, the country is suffering.

Consequently, the poor sales of German exports in China are dealing a fatal blow to the German economy.

Germany experienced negative growth for two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024; two consecutive years of negative growth signifies the immense suffering endured by the people.

During her tenure, Merkel was evaluated as skilled in stable management. The fact that she served for 16 years also implies that the German people elected her.

However, there is widespread criticism that she lacked bold investment for the future. Germany is a digitally backward country; despite being a global manufacturing powerhouse, its administrative systems and internet infrastructure lag far behind Korea.

There is much criticism that the timing for digital transformation was missed during Merkel's term because she focused solely on traditional "smokestack industries." There is a famous anecdote related to this: in 2013, during a joint press conference with then-US President Obama, Merkel drew ridicule for stating that "the Internet is a new territory." By 2013, it was not just the online era, but the mobile era had already begun.

Yet, Merkel claimed that the Internet was a new territory... It implies that she was slow to keep up with the times to the point where it was necessary to talk about it.

This remark shocked young Germans, and Merkel even went so far as to say she was "like a computer-illiterate grandmother from the 90s who doesn't understand the changes of the times." The meme you see here has "endless vastness" at the top and "new places" at the bottom; it depicts a scene mocking her for becoming aware of the internet belatedly.

Merkel is wearing 3D glasses with a serious expression, meant to tease her for being fascinated by something that is not a new technology at all, even though she experienced it late.

There is a harsh assessment that Germany's high-tech industrial infrastructure is so underdeveloped that it does not match its national stature , and many point out that the country failed to catch up with other nations during the Merkel era.

If we look at the global ranking of science and technology clusters selected by WIPO—the World Intellectual Property Organization—which measures the level of active scientific and technological innovation in a region, Munich ranks highest in Germany but is merely 27th globally.

This is not only significantly lower than Tokyo (2nd), Seoul (5th), London (8th), and Paris (12th) , but even lower than Daejeon, South Korea, which ranks 25th.

As an international organization under the UN based in Switzerland, WIPO has no reason to boost the rankings of Asian cities.

Former German Chancellor Merkel is evaluated at polar opposites between her time in office and after leaving office. Through Merkel, we can learn that excessive reliance on a specific country or overly optimistic belief that the other nation is acting in goodwill can drive a nation into crisis.

It also demonstrates that a leader must not only know how to manage the present well but also possess the foresight to look into the future.

This is a lesson we can learn from former Chancellor Merkel. I believe that if we look deeply into why Merkel is facing so much criticism now, we too can gain lessons for future national governance.

박수 속에 떠난 메르켈 전 총리, 왜 지금 유럽의 '역적'이 됐나 [손진석의 머니워치 EP.10]

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