Afghanistan withdrawal: Merkel’s role in focus

The Bundestag committee of inquiry into the final phase of the Afghanistan mission is today examining, among other things, the role played by ex-Chancellor Merkel. The SPD chairman in the committee raises serious allegations against them.

The former chancellor does not appear in person before the committee of inquiry – not yet. Nevertheless, the action and inaction of Angela Merkel in the final phase of the German mission in Afghanistan is now in focus. The chairman of the SPD in the investigative committee, Jörg Nürnberger, has massive criticism of the CDU politician: “My impression is that the chancellery has been passive for far too long and just let things take their course,” says Nürnberger in an interview with the ARD Capital Studio.

Nürnberger particularly criticizes Merkel’s policy in relation to the former helpers of the Germans in Afghanistan, the so-called local workers. “It is incomprehensible why the former Chancellor Merkel did not make the simplification of the local staff procedure a matter for the boss,” criticizes the SPD chairman. In this way, one could have made it possible for those at risk to leave the country.

Too halfhearted?

One of the central questions of the committee of inquiry is why the federal government failed to bring local workers to safety in good time in the weeks before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021. Confidential documents now show that in mid-July 2021 Merkel asked to reconsider the possibility of flying out local staff with charter planes.

A handwritten note by the then chancellor can also be found in a piece of paper. So Merkel did not remain completely inactive. But the question is: Did she intervene too half-heartedly – and above all too late?

The charter flight idea, promoted by the then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, among others, was never put into practice. The proposal was viewed with skepticism in the Foreign Office, the Interior Ministry, the Development Ministry and also in parts of the Bundeswehr.

“Penalized with non-compliance”

Even then, in the summer of 2021, there had been a lot of warnings, appeals and criticism to the Federal Government and the Chancellery because of the endangered local workers. The chairman of the “Afghan local staff sponsorship network,” Marcus Grotian, reported that in June and July he wrote to the chancellor, among other things. But this was “punished with non-observance”.

At the time, the Chancellery seemed to have been well aware of the increasing pressure from outside: In a confidential letter from July 2021, which ARD Capital Studio is available, the head of the Chancellery at the time, Helge Braun, refers to the admission program for local staff that has now been set up by the federal government. At the same time, however, he explains that, at the same time, efforts are still being made to “ensure that former local staff and their families have the prospect of staying in their home country of Afghanistan.”

Chaotic evacuation operation

The Taliban took power just a few weeks later. In a chaotic evacuation operation, the Bundeswehr tried to fly out those in need of protection: “The question is whether the scenes at the airport in Kabul could have been prevented if the chancellor’s office and the chancellor had intervened more decisively,” Nuremberger said. It cannot be ruled out that Merkel herself will one day be invited to the committee to provide answers.