by Julia Dahm
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel received the country’s highest order of merit, but not everyone thought the honour was justified, including high-ranking members of her own conservative CDU party.
Merkel, who was German chancellor for 16 years until the most recent federal election in 2021, was awarded the Grand Cross, the country’s highest order of merit, by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a ceremony on Monday evening.
But the step was met with contention as representatives from across the political spectrum called into question whether Merkel’s political legacy merits being honoured in this way.
The critics included leading members of Merkel’s own party, the conservative CDU.
While it is “clear” that Merkel has “big achievements, especially internationally,” she “also made mistakes, even blatant ones,” CDU vice-chair Carsten Linnemann told RTL.
He criticised the former chancellor’s energy policy, calling her decision to exit nuclear power without securing an alternative domestic energy source a “mistake.”
Linnemann also slammed Merkel’s refugee policy, saying “blatant mistakes” were made by not sufficiently protecting borders during the 2015 migration crisis.
Meanwhile, the estrangement between Merkel and her party seems to be mutual, as no member of the CDU leadership was on the guest list for Monday’s ceremony, which instead included Chancellor Olaf Scholz from the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Merkel is only the third person in Germany’s history to receive the Great Cross, after fellow conservative ex-chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl.
*first published in: Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
