Merkel, Angela
Germany, Facing Energy Crisis, Gives Nuclear Another Look
LANDSHUT, Germany — When Angela Merkel pulled the plug on nuclear power after the Fukushima meltdown, she set Germany on a course to become the only leading industrial nation to abandon atomic energy in the world. The economic engine of Europe planned instead to fuel itself through a transition to renewable energies with cheap Russian […]
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How the Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder Became Putin’s Man in Germany
But it was more than that, Mr. Schröder said. “I had been chancellor. I couldn’t go back to being a lawyer dealing with rental contracts. I needed a project,” he said. “Something I knew how to do and where I could serve German interests.” When Mr. Putin called Mr. Schröder on his cellphone the night […]
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Germany’s Dependence on Russian Gas Is Difficult to Break
LUBMIN, Germany — Past a nudist beach and a sleepy marina, a gigantic mesh of metallic pipes rises from the pine forest behind the tiny village of Lubmin on Germany’s Baltic coast. If few people have heard of Lubmin, from Berlin to Washington almost everyone seems to know the name of the two gas pipelines […]
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Zelensky Blasts Merkel and Sarkozy for Denying Ukraine NATO Membership
BRUSSELS — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine lambasted the former leaders of Germany and France, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, in a video address released late on Sunday, seemingly blaming them for the deaths of Ukrainian civilians. “I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha, to see what the policy of 14 years […]
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With Olaf Scholz at the Helm in Germany, a New, Uncertain Chapter
BERLIN — It was vintage Angela Merkel: The woman who has dominated European politics for the better part of two decades handed over her office to the next German chancellor, thanked her staff, then walked to the door and made an exit — her final one. After 16 years as leader of Germany and unofficial […]
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Angela Merkel’s Political Life in Pictures: The End of an Era
BERLIN — When Angela Merkel became chancellor 16 years ago, George W. Bush was in the White House and Tony Blair was prime minister of Britain. There was no Twitter and no iPhone. Liberal democracy was in seemingly irreversible expansion, with the Orange Revolution having swept Ukraine. On Wednesday, as Olaf Scholz, Ms. Merkel’s successor, […]
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Can Olaf Scholz, Germany’s New Chancellor, Revive the Left in Europe?
BERLIN — Last December, as he was plotting what most considered to be a hopeless bid to become Germany’s next chancellor, Olaf Scholz interrupted his campaign preparations for a video call with an American philosopher. Mr. Scholz, a Social Democrat, wanted to talk to the philosopher, Prof. Michael J. Sandel of Harvard, about why center-left […]
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Germany Requires Vaccines for Store and Restaurant Customers
BERLIN — Germany announced tough new restrictions on Thursday to exclude unvaccinated people from much of public life, seeking to break a soaring fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic and blunt the worrisome new Omicron variant. The new rules, which stopped short of enforcing a complete lockdown on the unvaccinated, followed an agreement hammered out […]
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Who Is Olaf Scholz, Germany’s Next Chancellor?
BERLIN — Olaf Scholz succeeded in his campaign to become the next chancellor of Germany primarily by convincing voters that he would be very much like the towering and long-serving figure he will replace: Angela Merkel. Terse, well-briefed and abstaining from any gesture of triumph, Mr. Scholz not only sounded like the outgoing conservative chancellor, […]
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