Peddler of the Four Horsemen

Angela Merkel's Legacy of Ashes

As Germany is about to get a new government anytime soon, it’s as good an occasion as any to briefly comment on Angela Merkel’s contribution to, and role in, German affairs and German history.

Herself a child of ‘the other Germany’, i.e., the German Democratic Republic, it is amazing to consider the ways the hopes and dreams of an entire nation have gone awry in such a manner: from ‘we are the people’ (Wir sind das Volk) via Gerhard Schröder’s ‘Agenda 2010’ (see here) to the ‘new normal’ (which is neither new nor normal) of the present, Merkel has been there from the beginning.

Raised upon the pedestal by her mentor, long-time chancellor, loyal U.S. vassal, and corrupt machine politician Helmut Kohl (in office 1982-98), Merkel quickly rose through the ranks of the equally corrupt Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) party, Germany’s main pseudo-conservative right-of-centre party. While the CDU and its smaller, albeit even more rabidly neoliberal Bavarian sister party CSU (Christian-Social Union) were out of federal power during Schröder’s two terms (1998-2005), Merkel finally became Chancellor in 2005, first with the Social Democrats (2005-2009), then with the Free Liberal Party (2009-13), and then again with the SPD (since 2013).

So, let’s look at her achievements, such as they are:

• Merkel oversaw the transformative neoliberalisation of Germany, which had begun under her mentor Kohl and that was introduced with full force by her political opponent Schröder (note the parallels to other ‘third way’ sleezeballs, such as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, François Hollande, and the like).

• Furthered the ‘integration’ of the E.U., which is becoming an ever more comprehensive tool for Franco-German domination of Europe (the continent) even though most of the E.U. member states’ citizens dislike the ‘ever closer union’ envisaged in the current treaty.

• Made Germany the ‘exporting world champion’ in terms of economic output, most of which rests on the twin pillars of outsourcing manufacturing to eastern Europe (gee, I wonder why Merkel never ‘really’ criticises Viktor Orbán, might it be the huge manufacturing plants in Hungary?) and exporting high value-added stuff such as BMWs and the like to China.

• There there’s also the ‘Energy Transition’ (Energiewende), which was inaugurated in the wake of the nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plant in 2011/12. It means the end of nuclear power generation and the phase-out of ‘dirty’ fossil fuels such as coal to ‘de-carbonise’ the economy, with a quite decent decrease in CO2 emissions as a result. That’s at least the theory, which sounds about as nice as anything a few school-skipping teens are rooting for on any given Friday (here’s looking at you, Greta Thunberg), for the reality in most, if not all, advanced economies is, of course, different: yes, there were some emission decreases, but they came about mainly be outsourcing manufacturing elsewhere (mainly China) while, as a result, the Energy Transition has made the grid very wobbly; add to that the ongoing demonisation of Russia since at least 2014, which is Germany’s premier supplier of natural gas to stay warm in winter, and you’d have a wonderful recipe for a potential catastrophe.

Yet, Merkel continues to be lauded and celebrated wherever she goes these days.

So, let us now focus on an equally important area of Merkel’s achievements, such as they are, and ‘celebrate’ this day by looking at one aspect of Germany’s economic performance during the past 16 years.

I’m talking, of course, about arms sales.

As reported by Jakob Reimann, here are the main take-aways:

‘Angela Merkel sold over 92 billion euros worth of arms to 165 countries in the world (out of 193 recognised). These countries account for over 98 percent of the world’s population. Half of all export licences went to so-called third countries, to which sales should actually be taboo; including many countries that are subject to arms embargoes. Even the heaviest war equipment such as tanks, submarines and fighter jets were distributed to countries on every continent. The world’s arms build-up is the disastrous legacy of the Merkel years.’

This sounds impressive, but keep in mind that it looks even more compelling once put on a map, such as this one:

165 countries out of a total of 193 U.N. member states, in addition to arms sales to 17 non-state territories, incl. Kosovo, Taiwan, West Sahara, Greenland, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.

There’s a rising trend of arms sales, Reimann noted, which increased by about 100-120m Euros annually from 2006 through 2020. Importantly, sales to so-called non-E.U. and non-NATO ‘third countries’, such as Switzerland, Australia, or Japan totalled about 49% of the total sales. In other words: every second weapon sold by Germany during the Merkel years was subject to stringent export licencing procedures deriving from both German and E.U. law.

Reimann on this:

Particularly noteworthy in this spirit of lawbreaking are, for example, the eight countries of the Saudi-Emirate coalition waging war against Yemen (all of which received permits in every year of the war), the Philippines under the mad despot Duterte (who compared himself to Hitler), several civil war countries and disintegrating states in Africa, Hungary under the far-right Orbán (who even topped the recipient charts in the last two years) or the USA waging war halfway around the globe.

Other notable examples incl. the sale of main battle tanks of the Leopoard 2 version to Greece and Turkey: the former has one of the largest tank forces in NATO (c. 1,300 MBTs, if you’re wondering), while the Turks used German weapons to illegally invade Syria, as reported by German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Needless to say, corruption is rife in the armaments industry, as at least 26m Euros of payouts to corrupt Greek officials—that we know about by—by Krauss-Maffei-Wegman, which manufactures the Leopard 2 tank, show.

In all, Merkel’s government didn’t sell weapons to 26 countries (out of 193 U.N. member states). Which countries didn’t buy German weapons? Reimann again (my emphasis):

Besides Guinea, Cuba, Malawi, Myanmar, North Korea and Zimbabwe, the countries to which Merkel did not sell arms include Pacific island states such as Nauru, Micronesia or Tuvalu, Caribbean states such as St. Lucia, Grenada or Dominica, or even Gambia, Suriname and Monaco. Together, these 28 countries are inhabited by 145 million people and thus account for less than two percent of the world's population. Conversely, this means that Angela Merkel has sold arms to countries that account for over 98 per cent of the world’s population.

What, then, is to be done?

Now that Merkel is out of office, here’s my suggestion (wish): no longer the head of a (semi-) sovereign government, her ex officio immunity from the legal consequences of her actions will be gone in a matter of days or weeks, and here’s what should happen now:

The government’s own annual report on arms exports holds that Merkel’s cabinet signed off on sales to countries subject to UN weapons embargoes, including Russia (oh, the irony), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Iraq, Congo, Lebanon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uzbekistan.

All of these sales are illegal under both German and international law.

So, why not have Merkel, a serial lawbreaker and apparently someone at odds with ‘western values’ (sic) ‘self-deport’ herself and face criminal charges? Perhaps we should venture over to gofundme.com and all chime in to get her a one-way ticket to Den Haag.