During the refugee crisis in 2015
Stoiber planned Merkel’s downfall, according to Schäuble’s memoirs
April 3, 2024, 5:16 a.m
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In his forthcoming memoirs, Schäuble draws a mixed assessment of the Merkel era. Although he appreciated her “balance-oriented political style”, he criticized her style of leadership. According to Schäuble, Merkel had a determined opponent within the CDU: Stoiber.
According to the wishes of the former CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, the CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble, who died in December 2023, was supposed to replace Angela Merkel in the Chancellery in the refugee crisis. Schäuble reports this in his memoirs, which will be published posthumously on April 8th and from which “Stern” will exclusively print key passages in advance.
This is the first time Schäuble has named a name in connection with plans for a coup during the refugee crisis in 2015. Stoiber became active “and fired up Seehofer, his successor in the prime minister’s office, in his attacks against Merkel,” Schäuble writes about the tensions within the Union. “And he wanted to persuade me to overthrow Merkel in order to become chancellor myself,” he writes about Stoiber. “I firmly rejected that. As with Kohl decades before, I remained convinced that the overthrow of our own chancellor could only harm our party in the long term without really solving the problem. That was my understanding of loyalty, perhaps by today’s standards seems a little antiquated.”
Schäuble had already reported on plans to overthrow Merkel on the ZDF program “Markus Lanz” in December 2022, but did not mention any names. Schäuble further writes in his memoirs: “The whole debate almost amused me a little, because I knew my age, had been paralyzed for more than a quarter of a century and had overall poor health.” Schäuble was 73 years old at the end of 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis. “I had been able to read my obituaries many times in previous years – and now I, whose career had supposedly always remained ‘unfinished’, should finally take the plunge into the chancellor’s office? That was somewhat absurd.”
Merkel “resistant to advice in some respects”
Schäuble supported Merkel’s refugee policy, but overall draws a mixed assessment of her time in government. “When the Chancellor made the decision on September 4, 2015, which in retrospect was central to this crisis, to keep the borders open in view of the catastrophic conditions at the Budapest train station, where thousands of refugees were stranded, I thought this was right for humanitarian and European policy reasons.” , writes Schäuble. He supported Merkel “to the best of his ability,” said Schäuble. “Merkel’s sentence ‘We can do it!’, which she said at the end of August 2015 I thought it was right.”
As the crisis dragged on, he and Merkel developed different ideas. “Unlike the Chancellor, I thought it was right to give the citizens pure wine and make it clear that working for the refugees also involves costs and sacrifices. Appeals alone are of no use,” writes Schäuble. He was “occasionally frustrated” that Merkel “remained resistant to advice in some respects.” In Schäuble’s view, Merkel would have had completely different options to really lead politically and not just react.
Schäuble “always liked Merkel as a person”
Schäuble draws a mixed assessment of the Merkel era: “As Chancellor, she made a significant contribution to ensuring that our country was able to cope with structural social changes without causing too much disruption.” Schäuble cites “perhaps the most important political merit” as “the fact that her political style, aimed at balancing, ensured trust and confidence in our country, especially among neighbors and partners.” However, “the disadvantages of her constant search for compromises with coalition partners and the other parties in the Federal Council” later outweighed the disadvantages.
Personally, he “had a fundamental sympathy for her and always liked her as a person.” But it is also true that “we both have very different views of what it means to lead politically. That also strained his loyalty.” She gave in too much to her respective coalition partners and the faction under Volker Kauder claimed to be a counterweight to form, was not even allowed.”