Angela Merkel's last years of government: Angela Merkel's years of reign from 2017 up to 2021 including

By Egon Harings

This book describes the years from 2017 up to and including 2021. These are the last years of Angela Merkel's government, the years of a great woman of world politics, the years of many state visits in Germany too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Jan 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9783347507739

Egon Harings

Egon Harings wurde in Düsseldorf geboren. Nach Schulbesuchen in der ehemals französischen und britischen Besatzungszone machte er eine Ausbildung als Industriekaufmann. Später studierte er Betriebswirtschaft und war in der Stahlindustrie beschäftigt. Heute ist er Rentner und lebt mit seiner Frau in der Nähe von Düsseldorf. Mit dem Schreiben von Büchern begann er um 2010. Veröffentlicht wurden bereits Werke von ihm in Großbritannien und in den Vereinigten Staaten. In Deutschland erfolgte im Jahre 2013 die erste Veröffentlichung in deutscher Sprache.

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Prologue

The year 2016, there was the first Islamic terrorist attack with many dead in Germany. In December, an Islamist raced with a stolen truck onto a Christmas market in Berlin, 12 dead. – In America a new president was elected in the last weeks. It’s Donald Trump, an unhappy figure on the political stage. – The year 2017 also did not start happy for Germany. A German journalist, who wrote critically about the Turkish president, is arrested in Turkey. Allegation: espionage and cooperation with terrorist movements.

The terror in the world always finds new food. This terror is indeed fought by many nations, but it nevertheless records successes. It can be compared with the mammoth and Smilodon during the Pleistocene epoch. The mammoth had the strength to resist any attacker, but was not equal to the Smilodon, the saber-toothed tiger. This extinct genus of machairodont felid crept, as is usual with cats, to his victim to kill it. The mammoth with his upwardly curved tusks behaved differently. This primordial elephant did not attack any living creatures. He was a power that was attacked by humans during the glacial epoch however. Do not terrorists do the same today? Are they not attacking powers that are superior to them? Yes, they do. Only what do they have in mind? They cannot win, they know. But they probably do not want it; they only want to spread fear and terror.

Mammoth and Smilodon

Angela Merkel’s heydays are going on

The year 2017

During the spring of the year three important regional elections took place in Germany. The party of Angela Merkel (CDU) emerged victorious in all elections. The SPD (Social Democrats) have a new party chairman, with whom they hoped to win elections. It is Martin Schulz. But the Social Democrats did not succeed in the first elections this year. Even in North-Rhine Westphalia, the country that was firmly in SPD hand, the Social Democrats lost the election and the CDU candidate became the new Prime Minister. – Merkel achieved successes. Only with Turkey there were problems. The Turks did not allow German deputies to visit their soldiers, who were stationed in Turkey. Therefore the Bundestag (German parliament) decided to move the soldiers who fought against the IS (Islamic State) to Jordan. But nevertheless, the German Foreign Minister tried to reach an agreement with the Turkish government some days later.

In the first months of the year, Great Britain experienced a terror wave. It was the IS, which hits three times. There many dead. Germany mourned with Britain. When will terror finally stop? That was the question many asked. But the terror behaved like Smilodon in primitive time, who always sought new prey.

America has a new president since the beginning of the year. It’s Donald Trump. In May the summit of the seven most important economic powers took place in Italy.

Trump was not worried about the failure of this summit and Germany rebelled against the American President. The German government and the leaders of all parties represented in parliament were in favor of an emancipation of Europe from the USA. Merkel warned Trump indirectly against isolation: Who today is putting on national blinders and has no eyes for the world around him, is ultimately on the sidelines.

Sigmar Gabriel, the German Foreign Minister, denied the US leadership in the Western community of values. The opposition parties, the Left and the Greens, were in line with the government exceptionally. Jean-Claude Juncker -- President of the European Commission -- also pushed for more European independence and cohesion.

During the summit, massive differences between Trump and the allies of America had become apparent. There were the differences of opinion in military issues, climate protection and the refugee issue. Merkel said: We Europeans must really take our fate into own hands. The times when we can rely entirely on others are a bit far away. Schulz accused Trump of political blackmail. He wrote in a newspaper: The new President of the United States does not rely on international cooperation, but on isolationism and the supposed right of the strongest.

At the end of May the tone between Angela Merkel and Donald Trump intensified. On Twitter Trump practiced massive criticism of Germany’s trade surplus and the low level of military spending that he saw from his point of view. He also wrote: Very bad for the US. That’s going to change. After the summit Merkel had already expressed doubts about the reliability of the United States.

China’s head of government, Li Keqiang is in Berlin. Germany and China are focusing on close cooperation on free trade, climate protection and security in face of a difficultly calculable policy of the new American President, Donald Trump. On 1 June, Angela Merkel said after a meeting with China’s Prime Minister: We live in times of global uncertainty … We see ourselves under the responsibility to expand our partnership in the various areas and to use a rulebased order of the world for us. Li Keqiang clearly confessed to multilateralism in international relations. Li and Merkel emphasized the chances of a free exchange of goods against the background of the protectionist economic policy of Trump. We rely on open markets, Merkel said too.

There was a worldwide criticism of America’s departure from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. In Berlin, Greenpeace projected the following inscription on the façade of the US Embassy: Total Loser, so sad! The governments of France, Italy and Germany blocked themselves against a demand of Trump to negotiate new international rules. China’s government believed that the withdrawal of America from the Paris Climate Agreement would be a global setback. However, China, but also India, in addition to America, two of the largest environmental polluters, announced that they would adhere to the agreement. – Angela Merkel was fighting hard. She said: To those to whom the future of our planet is important, I say, let us go the way together so that we can be successful for our earth … Nothing can and will stop us.

Li Keqiang had hardly left Berlin, and Merkel was already flying to Argentina and Mexico to promote her core themes, such as free trade, women, climate, migration and Africa. The signals of the 82-hour tour to Buenos Aires and Mexico City were unambiguous. At the G20 summit in July in Hamburg Merkel could rely on the Argentine Mauricio Macri and the Mexican Enrique Peña Nieto for the free trade and the fight against global warming. We must defend our common values: democracy, free trade, environmental protection and human rights, Nieto, the current President of Mexico said when Merkel was now visiting his country. … You can count on us to be committed to continue your work. – The Mexican President praised the chancellor in high tones. She had to slow down her host’s exaggerated praise every now and then. In Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, she then tried to reduce expectations. She could not be a new leader of the free world, despite Trump’s foreclosure policy. After a meeting with the president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, Merkel said: Nobody in this world, no country in this world can solve the world-wide problems alone. But what was the tactics for the coming weeks? Merkel did not have any illusions about climate protection: The G20 communiqué can only be passed unanimously, and Trump will not withdraw his exit from the Paris Climate Agreement until the summit of Hamburg. Should the fight against global warming be therefore not mentioned immediately? Merkel did not want to support a vague compromise formulation, especially not during the election campaign in which she was. On 24 September the German election took place (Bundestagswahl) and the election campaign was about credibility now.

At the beginning of June, Sigmar Gabriel, German Foreign Minister, was in Turkey. It was the last attempt to reach an agreement with Turkey in the dispute over the visit of German deputies in Incirlik, where German soldiers were stationed. In Ankara this last attempt to reach an agreement failed. The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, refused to grant the unrestricted right of German deputies to visit the 260 German soldiers that was required by the German government. Gabriel now said to the Turkish Foreign Minister, the German soldiers would be withdrawn from Incirlik. In future, the troops with Tornado reconnaissance planes will fight from Jordan against the terrorist organization Islamic State, as the German parliament had already decided. We are prepared for a transfer of the troops, declared the German Minister of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen. … With Al-Azrak airport in Jordan, we have found a comparable alternative. – Gabriel said at the press conference with Cavusoglu: We want to do peacefully the withdrawal of our troops with our Turkish colleagues, without much debate. No side wants that the decision further degrades the relation between the two states. By the withdrawal there is the possibility of the settlement of the dispute and to work furthermore in all points in which we have common interests.

Gabriel spoke for the last words of the German parliament relating to the withdrawal from Incirlik. The Bundestag decides where our soldiers are stationed. That is what we understand by parliament army, he said. The German parliament decides on Al-Azrak finally. – The Turkish Foreign Minister said after the meeting with Gabriel: At the moment we don’t have the conditions for a visit in Incirlik. He criticized the Germans again because the German government would not take action against the prohibited Kurdish Party PKK sufficiently. … But Germany provides shelter for members of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, who are criminals. They have to be extradited, he said still. Germany refused that.

June 16, it’s Friday and a mourning day. The former chancellor Helmut Kohl dies at the age of 87 years. Germany loses a formative person of the postwar period. Kohl had shaped the Federal Republic of Germany, as only very few. Now, the Chancellor of the German Reunification, the pioneer of the European Union, is dead. He died in his house in Ludwigshafen. Only a few minutes after his death, politicians from all over the world expressed their consternation. The German government spokesman wrote on Twitter: In deep mourning for a great European. Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia, praised the former German chancellor by saying: Kohl was a principle advocate of friendly relations between Berlin and Moscow. – Kohl was chancellor from 1982 to 1998. He was the driving force for the EU and for a common currency. However, his greatest success was the reunification of the two German states. In 2008 Kohl fell heavily and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Since that time, he also sat in a wheelchair and could hardly speak. In 2015 his condition worsened. After an operation, he was hospitalized for months. He returned to his home and received the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán there in April 2016. – Angela Merkel received the news of the death of Kohl during a trip to Rome. She had flown to Rome for a private audience with Pope Francis. Merkel said that Kohl had changed her way of life. Through him, she could have led a life of freedom and left a dictatorship. After the peaceful revolution in 1989 in East Germany (GDR), Kohl recognized that the window would be open for Germany’s unity only briefly. Under high pressure he dealt with the heads of state and government of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and the leaders of the European Union the arrangements for the reunification of the two German states. – Kohl, who was a man of the CDU (Christian Democrats), was also a man of a political record: From 1973 to 1998 he was party chairman. For 25 years the leader of a party, no one was likely to reach it. Merkel is now leading the party CDU for 17 years. At the beginning of the 1990s, Kohl was her political mentor in the federal government and the party. Nevertheless, it was Merkel, as the then CDU general secretary, who demanded the party to be released from the CDU superfather Kohl because of a donation scandal, in which he was decisively involved. The relationship has been shattered to the last, in despite of that she said now: Helmut Kohl was a stroke of luck for me and for Germany.

† Helmut Kohl

June 22. In a funeral oration the President of the German Parliament (Bundestag), Norbert Lammert, had also described Kohl as a stroke of luck for Germany. He did it like Merkel some days ago, but he said more: He was a stroke of luck for Europe too. His way lined offences in the end; there were insults, which he had to accept, but also insults which he inflicted on others.

Sunday, June 25. Three months before the Bundestag election the candidate of the SPD, Martin Schulz, attacked Merkel as violently as never before. His party was on the hunt for votes. During a party conference of the SPD (Social Democrats) in Dortmund, he accused the CDU to shirk content statement and to accept the fact that fewer citizens go to the polls. He also said in front of 600 delegates: I call this an attack on democracy. He also accused the CDU of arrogance. – The SPD had now moved into the hot phase of the election campaign with the program entitled "It is time for more justice: securing the future of Europe." During the party conference this program was decided without opposition and only one abstention by the delegates. The most important points were also the demand for relief for small and mediumsized incomes and higher tax for top earners. Also, the visit of kindergartens should be free of charge and may marry gays and lesbians. The deportation of Afghan asylum seekers was to be also stopped immediately.

Martin Schulz

Only a few days later, a law was passed that allowed marriage between gays and lesbians. It was Merkel, who said during an interview, that in case of a vote in parliament, every Member of Parliament would have to vote according to his own conscience. Surprisingly, there was the vote and the majority of deputies voted for marriage of gays and lesbians. Even from the CDU, Merkel’s party, many voted for this marriage; but she herself voted against it.

June 29. The German government forbade Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish President, to speak to his followers during the summit in Hamburg. Sigmar Gabriel said: We informed the Turkish government, that we are thoroughly convinced that a speech of Erdogan in front of Turkish citizens we cannot allow in Germany. There is also the constitutional jurisdiction that we can do it … It’s a real assessment of foreign interests of Germany. And these are unequivocal. But Turkey we cannot forbid, if Erdogan wants to speak to his followers in a Turkish consulate general. Erdogan had applied for the possibility to speak to his followers during the 20G summit in Hamburg. Martin Schulz said: Foreign politicians who trample on our values don’t have a platform for an inflammatory speech in Germany. The Turkish government was outraged at these words. It’s regrettable that a German politician makes such a statement, which is not acceptable, said the Turkish Foreign Minister. The Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said even: Erdogan must have the possibility to speak to Turkish citizens there where he wants it.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

July 1, funeral obsequies in Strasbourg. Europe mourned for Helmut Kohl, the great European. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said as friend of the former chancellor, while he looked at the coffin: Dear Helmut, you are now in heaven. Promise me that you do not immediately form a CDU local association there. You have done enough, for your party, for your country, for our common Europe. Former and today’s heads of state and government, friends and political opponents had come to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. They all took now a worthy farewell to the German statesman and convinced European, who was the world politician from the German country Palatinate. His legacy was to strive for a more peaceful world. – On this day of grief, it was once more bitterly clear how little peaceful it was in Kohl’s private life with his sons. Beyond his death there remained a disrupted relationship between him and his sons Peter and Walter Kohl and their families. They did not appear at the mourning ceremony in Strasbourg, and they did not appear at the funeral fair in Speyer Cathedral later. The political bridge builder could not build a bridge to his sons. Kohl’s second wife, Maike Kohl-Richter, lastly denied them admission to their parents’ home in Ludwigshafen. – It was Merkel, who remembered Kohl’s first wife Hannelore, who took her life almost 16 years ago. But she also said that her compassion was to Maike Kohl-Richter and all those who mourn in Helmut Kohl’s family, like his sons. – For the first time in the history of the European Union, which Kohl had so significantly influenced, a European act of mourning was organized for a politician. Admirers, companions, heads of state and government were now on his coffin and described Kohl as a man with values: Reliability, trust, idealism, perseverance, courage; as an intermediary between East and West and between people. Juncker was enthusiastic about the German and European patriot, the postwar giant. The former US President, Bill Clinton, was not less moved. He gave Kohl a declaration of love: He wanted to create a world in which no one dominates … You did well in your life. And we, who were allowed to be there, love you for it. For Merkel the mourning hour was a difficult basic constellation. The whole world knew about her disagreement with Kohl during his donation affair. There was no real reconciliation between her and the former chancellor. Merkel said at her mourning speech: Kohl polarized and did not like any contradiction. So many spirits separated themselves from him. Not a few have worked on him and some have worn their nerves through him. Many can tell about it, including me. The sad side now also was that there was no German state mourning act for Kohl. – Merkel paid particular attention to Kohl as a major bridge builder between France and Poland, between USA and Russia. In the end, Merkel said while she looked down at the coffin: Dear Chancellor Helmut Kohl, that I am here, you have a decisive part in this. Thanks for the chance you gave me. Without you, the lives of millions of people who lived in the GDR behind the Wall until 1989 would be completely different, of course also my life. And: I bow down to you. My remembrance is yours in gratitude and humility. – The coffin with Helmut Kohl was taken by a helicopter from Strasbourg to Ludwigshafen after the mourning ceremony, and later by a ship on the Rhine to Speyer, where a Pontifical Requiem took place in the cathedral. He then found his last retirement in a small cemetery near the cathedral. Only his wife and his closest friends accompanied him on the way to his grave.

In the first three days of July, CDU and CSU presented their joint electoral program. With demonstrative unity and many promises to improvements in Germany, they want to win the Bundestag election. Our future project for Germany is called: Prosperity and security for all, said Merkel in the CDU headquarters in Berlin at the presentation of the electoral program of the both Union parties. CDU, under the leadership of Merkel and CSU, under the leadership of Seehofer, Prime Minister of Bavaria, had unanimously adopted the joint electoral program. There should be tax breaks of over 15 billion Euros and the progressive reduction of the solidarity surcharge from 2020 onwards. Tax increases were not planned until 2025, but full employment. A building allowance for children was planned. Who bought a property should receive 1,200 Euros for each child for 10 years. The tax exemption for children should be further increased. In addition, 15,000 police officers were to recruited all over Germany. Merkel said: We want people to get better at the end of the next legislature than today. The topic of work is the focus.

It’s the 5th of July and Erdogan flexes his muscles again. Several activists are arrested. Amnesty International speaks of a witch hunt. In Turkey, one German and five other persons were imprisoned, which triggered a great indignation internationally. The Secretary General of Amnesty International criticized the arrests: This is not about a legitimate investigation of a case, this is a politically motivated witch hunt, he said. Angela Merkel condemned the arrest of the German and demanded his immediate release. We are firmly convinced that the arrest is unjustified … The German government will do everything, at all levels, to obtain his release. From our point of view this is unfortunately a further case; people who have no police record, enter the mills of the Turkish justice and are arrested. This gives rise to the greatest concern, she said. Martin Schulz said: What we are currently experiencing in Turkey transcends all borders … Merkel is no longer allowed to remain silent when Erdogan has more and more journalists and human rights activists cast into prison. – Ten human rights activists were arrested at a workshop in Istanbul. The Turkish prosecutor’s office accused eight Turks and two foreigners of supporting a terror organization, which had not been mentioned. Erdogan had all moved near the putschists. Four of the detainees were released a few days after their arrest.

Xi Jinping

It’s still July 5th, two days before the summit of Hamburg, in solving global problems, Angela Merkel was relying on Beijing’s return. She said that she would work closely with China to prepare the summit. In Berlin she just had a meeting with China’s President, Xi Jinping. There she also said: I believe and hope that we can still overcome some of the cliffs, although I do not yet know what the final result will look like. – At the G20 summit of the major economic powers and the EU, US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also took part … Regarding Xi Jinping Merkel said: He is an important ally in view of global uncertainty and crises. Xi Jinping added: China and Germany can help to calm the world’s unrest and make out of it a quieter world.

Angela Merkel

It’s July 7th, the first day of G20 summit in Hamburg. Merkel asks the state leaders to compromises. But the negotiations were more difficult than expected. It was a troubled meeting; this not only because of violent clashes in the Hanseatic City. At the beginning of the meeting of the leaders of the largest countries in the world remained without any tangible results. Now it became important the first meeting of America’s President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. This was delicate because the two superpowers often disagreed, especially because of Syria. It was only the day before beginning of the summit that Trump in Warsaw accused Russia of destabilizing behavior and agreed with Poland on the delivery of defensive missiles.

Donald Trump

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a cheered speech at a globalizationcritical protest concert in the Hamburg Arena and expressed his support for progressive trade agreements. Putin said the same. The message to Trump was clear. You stand alone in the matter of protectionism. In the current steel dispute was even threatened. If Washington were to shut down its market against European imports, the EU would react within a few days, Juncker announced. And the EU boss continued to say irritated: We are in higher combat mood. – Jean-Claude Juncker also announced at the summit that Japan and the EU agree on a trade agreement, which is onethird of the value added of the world.

During the summit there was still a large talk between Trump and Putin. The US side was almost exuberant when it was necessary to describe the character of the meeting that took place between the two states at the height of an ice age. For their talk, Putin and Trump left the other participants of the summit, when there was still the most controversial issue: Climate protection and energy. Since the US had terminated the Paris Climate Agreement it was unclear whether there could be a common line of the G20. Merkel urged the participants of the summit in her opening speech to seek compromises. We all know that time is pressing, she said. But no one should bend, she meant too.

Merkel did not want to isolate the USA. Anyway, at G20 summits there were only consensual decisions. In Berlin there was the fear that Trump, on the other hand, could try to find allies who also want to leave the Paris Agreement. Saudi-Arabia would be such a candidate, but also Australia and maybe Turkey. On the other hand, China insisted that all states remain in terms of climate on board.

In the morning, the first round of discussions focused on combating international terrorism. The 20 heads of government sat on white chairs in a wide round, alphabetically grouped. To the left of Merkel was the Argentinian Mauricio Macri and to the right, the second was Donald Trump. Everyone had a microphone and before each participant was a little table with drinks. 5,000 officially registered journalists saw, what there happened during the meeting of the heads of government, in a huge press center, into which the pictures were transferred at the beginning of the summit.

The long talk between Putin and Trump was generally approved. So the American Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson who also took part in the talk, said that the chemistry has been right. Both presidents would have quickly found a wire to each other. Everything had been extremely constructive; they had agreed to look forward, instead of staying with mutual reproaches from the past. Trump even spoke of an honor, which represented the meeting with Putin for him. – On the other hand, also the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, spoke of a constructive meeting. In Moscow many cheered. It should be the beginning of a process that stopped the downward spiral in US-Russian relations. – The first meeting of the two alphas Trump and Putin superimposed the G20 summit and the truce in Syria, which Tillerson spoke, were the few countable results of the first summit day. Trump and Putin did not take anything seriously what happened outside of their two-menmeeting. So Trump looked only a few minutes into the working session on environmental and climate protection. His Finance Minister, Steven Mnuchin, said that there would have been a very meeting on trade.

Vladimir Putin

Everything was overshadowed by violent riots, which were more violent than could be expected. While thousands protested against the meeting of the heads of state and government, the US and Russia also agreed on the armistice in the southwest of Syria. After six years of civil war with more than 400,000 dead, this was seen as an important progress. But the summit threatened to fail in the greatest issues: Climate protection and free trade. The European Union defended against the foreclosure of Trump by threat of sanctions.

In Hamburg, street fighting flashed around the G20 summit again and again. Merkel condemned the riots: Violent demonstrations put people in danger. The German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said similar words: Brutal violence has got no business in our streets. It has also no justification and cannot count on understanding.

The whole day, the streets of Hamburg were filled with riots. In the evening thousands of G20 opponents tried to advance to the locked "Elbphilharmonie", where the G20 summit participants wanted to meet for a concert. – The police demanded reinforcements from other German federal states. There were devastations and numerous fires. 196 police officers were injured. 70 persons were arrested and 15 were taken into custody. Also many protesters were injured, eleven of them seriously. The fire brigade had to delete dozens of fires.

July 8. It was the last summit day; a summit of burning barricades, a summit of modest political results. After the unprecedented riots around the summit there was a heated discussion about responsibility and consequences. The CDU of Hamburg demanded the resignation of the ruling mayor of the Hanseatic City State. Olaf Scholz (SPD) would have estimated the security situation blatantly wrong, the CDU politicians of the city said. But also the decision of Merkel for the summit in Hamburg and the meaning of such elaborate meetings were questioned. Frank-Walter Steinmeier defended both: A democratically fortified country like Germany should also have selfconfidence and say: Yes, such conferences must not only be, but if they have to be, they can also take place with us.

Hamburg had been in a state of exception for three days and three nights because of the worst riots for decades in Germany. Many politicians talked of terror and civil warlike conditions. Lastly, 500 persons were arrested. The street fighting continued when the last heads of state and government left Hamburg.

At the summit no progress could be made on the central issues. Merkel did not succeed in uniting the other economic powers in the climate protection issue. Some states did not want to act against Trump. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on the side of Trump by calling into question the Paris Climate Agreement too. Also the dispute with the USA about the free trade could not be defused sustainably. Nevertheless, Merkel was satisfied and spoke of good results in some areas. The riots with devastations and looting in the city of Hamburg she condemned sharply. Raging violence cannot be tolerated, she said. She promised quick aid and compensation for the victims of the riots.

During the summit in one night the police had been attacked with steel balls and Molotov cocktails. As far as the police was concerned, special units were used, armed with machine guns. During this night 37 rioters were arrested and 476 policemen were injured. More than 20,000 policemen were involved. There were no indications of injured demonstrators. The largest demonstration of the day with more than 50,000 participants had been peaceful.

At the end of the summit the Turkish President Erdogan joined Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. He told them: As long as the promises made to us are not kept, we will not ratify the Climate Agreement in our Parliament. So it was clear that there were now two states of the G20 that left the Paris Climate Agreement.

It’s the middle of July, France and Germany intend to jointly develop a new combat aircraft in order to promote closer European cooperation in the field of defense. Staff of the Élysée Palace said after the meeting of the Franco-German Council of Ministers that the system was to be created under the leadership of the two countries and to replace the current air fleet of defense in long terms. By the middle of 2018, a timetable is to be drawn up, said Angela Merkel in Paris. – This is a profound revolution , said now Emmanuel Macron, President of France. So far, the German Air Force had been focusing on the Eurofighter, but the French on the Rafale Combat Aircraft. The announcement came against the background of efforts for closer military and armaments cooperation in the EU. Merkel said: What we have adopted today on common developments is something that Europe can really bring forward, I believe. Ursula von der Leyen, German Defense Minister, added: It is much wiser when we Europeans develop the next generation of defense equipment and technology together, whether it’s a tank or a combat aircraft. In any case, Merkel relied on closer cooperation with France. Her words were: After Macron’s start of office Germany is ready to activate the cooperation with a new vigor. The basic understanding is to jointly strengthen the European Union in order to ensure human security and economic progress.

Many Turks in Germany agree with the rigorous actions of their president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against alleged opponents. Thereby he splits the Turkish community in Germany, to which 3 million Turks belong. Who is opposed to Erdogan, does not dare to say anything against him in Germany. Everyone is afraid to be denounced. Anyone who has expressed negative about Erdogan fears that he might have problems with a trip to his home country. – Erdogan also annoyed the German government once again. He forbade a planned visit by German parliamentary deputies to the NATO base in Konya, where 15 German soldiers are stationed in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The only reason: The bilateral relations are currently so bad that visits by German deputies cannot be allowed.

According to the British decision of the previous year, to leave the EU, now in July the first negotiations are taking place between EU representative and the representative of Great Britain. There are already conflicts in the first Brexit negotiations. It is a question of which court should decide in the event of a dispute about the future rights of EU citizens in Great Britain. Also, the question cannot be clarified as to who should be responsible for cases from the United Kingdom that exist before the Brexit and concern EU law, but which are still pending before any court. For Brussels is clear, only the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg can be a mediator. We want the European Court of Justice to be the last guarantor of these citizens’ right, says the Brexit EU Commissioner. Also the most important group chairmen in the EU Parliament insist that Luxembourg judges remain responsible for the enforcement of the rights of all EU citizens. The EU Commissioner fears uncertainty in the effective and coherent application of the rights of EU citizens. A German European lawyer sees good reasons for the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, but not mandatory. He says: The continuity of the caselaw would be guaranteed. In addition, the European Court of Justice decides on a European level. EU citizens were thus protected to the extent as before the Brexit. – In the British position papers to the Brexit negotiations is called: The case law of the EU Court of Justice in Great Britain is to end with the Brexit. Only pending procedures should be completed. Almost like a mantra is repeated the sentence in the documents: The withdrawal from the EU will end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the United Kingdom.

We write July 19th, the German government is in conflict with Turkey with its patience at the end. After the imprisonment of a German human rights activist, the Turkish ambassador in Berlin was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The German Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, broke his leave to discuss measures against Turkey. To the Turkish ambassador the indignation of the German government and the associated expectations were conveyed without diplomatic phrases. The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry said: The German government demands the immediate release of the German member of Amnesty International and immediate unimpeded consular access. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now knows that we are serious. And, the terrorism allegations against the detainee are farfetched. The government spokesman said. The German government and the Chancellor personally condemn the imprisonment of our national. The accusations against him and the other human rights activists are a clear attempt to discredit dissenters. The Chancellor will now discuss with the Foreign Minister all further measures. In a speech, Merkel herself had already declared to be in solidarity with the German detainee and the other activists imprisoned with him. When the German parties demanded to cut EU funds for Turkey, the government spokesman said: In the second half of 2017 there will be a review. The aim is to strengthen democracy in Turkey. We must therefore ask ourselves whether these aids can reach their goal at all. Turkey should receive about 4.5 billion Euros from the EU budget by 2020 under the ongoing accession process, but only a small part of this has been paid so far. The German government spokesman but also said: A Turkish departure from Europe is neither in the interest of Germany nor in the interest of Europe. We are also not questioning the refugee agreement with Turkey because this is of mutual interest.

July 20, Germany is on a tough course against Turkey. After months of appeals for moderation, the German government has