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| Angela Merkel |
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The last week the Chancellor candidate of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU), Angela Merkel, presented to the public her "team of professionals", the so-called "Kompetenzteam". These people will accompany her during the month that is left before the elections, and in case of a victory, they will make a skeleton of the new government. It is noticeable that the candidate for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs has not yet been named. However, in the team there is "an adviser on European and foreign affairs". Wolfgang Schauble – a veteran of German politics, and an active opponent of the concept of a strategic partnership with Russia to the detriment of its attitudes towards the USA.
A critical approach to relations with Russia
The main ideas of Angela Merkel's team in the field of foreign policy are stated in the document named " the Governmental program 2005-2009" ("Regierungsprogramm 2005-2009"). It is necessary to note here that the program is mainly concentrated not on the questions of foreign policy but on sharp economic and social problems. Nevertheless, the description of the foreign policy concept occupies five whole pages from a total of 40 pages of the document.
Here are its basic postulates:
* A reduction of centralism in the EU management and an increase in the powers of separate members of the EU (first of all, of their national parliaments), including the field of a national financial policy, and also in the all-European foreign policy.
* A reduction of Germany's share in financing the all-European projects and a fairer distribution of the financial burden within the framework of the EU.
* The establishment of an "exclusive partnership" regime (" Privilegierte Partnerschaft ") with Turkey and rejection of the idea of full integration of this country into the EU as "unrealistic".
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Regierungsprogramm |
* A freezing of the EU's expansion process of adding bordering countries. The authors of the program consider Bulgaria and Romania, the acceptance of whom to the Union is already planned, should be conditional upon the performance of all the necessary criteria by them. Also they support the idea of beginning negotiations for the introduction into the EU of Croatia , as this state is " deeply rooted in Europe."
* The development of friendship with France as one of the main conditions of the well-being of the European Union.
* A strengthening of relations with the German communities in Eastern Europe - as a means of tightening relations with the Eastern neighbors of Germany.
Even at a glance it may be noticed that the above listed positions of the new foreign policy concept of the Christian Democrats makes no mention of relations with Russia.
The authors of the document have wiped the Russian capital from the strategic axis of Paris-Berlin-Moscow created by the present chancellor Schroeder It was done with a purpose. On page 37 of the program there are serious charges addressed by the present German government, which "regularly undermines our partner relations inside NATO by the unscrupulous policy concerning Russia and China". Merkel and her team insist that an association within the framework of the European Union is not an antithesis of the Atlantic partnership at all. In this connection NATO appears the as most important guarantor of the safety of Germany. As for relations with Russia, they are mentioned in just a small paragraph in the document. It concerns the desire of Germany to support and develop kind attitudes towards Russia; however, in any event, not at the expense of the neighbors of Germany (especially Poland and the Baltics). Besides, the document demands an unwillingness in a future CDU led government to oversee the "problematic tendencies of internal policy of Russia ".
In the view of the too laconically put "Governmental program", a more wider explanation of the approach of Christian Democrats to relations with Russia must be looked for in the numerous public statements of Merkel, and also in her interviews to the German press for last year. The issue of the relations of Germany and Russia was invariably a central one in most of her public appearances and meetings with the press. One of the most important certifications of Merkel's position concerning Russia and the former Soviet Union as a whole is in her statement to the German parliament (Bundestag) concerning the elections in Ukraine on December 1, 2004. The statement was entitled "To strengthen democracy in Ukraine" and contained a demand to carry out repeated presidential elections in this country, as a counterbalance to the desire of Moscow. "It is our task, a task of Germans, - the head of CDU declared - to strengthen democracy there where it is possible!" She has completely and unambiguously specified Russia as the basic originator of the crisis situation in Ukraine, and has called upon Moscow to drop its imperial thinking for the benefit of democratic principles.
By 2005, in a whole series of interviews, Angela Merkel
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| Merkel hopes for victory (photo: AP) |
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continued to remind us of her idea about a critical approach to mutual relations with Russia. Though the general tone of her statements addressing Russia was appreciably softened, their direction remained unchanged: that a desire to keep good relations with Moscow should not lead to the stoppage of criticism on the principle issues. Simultaneously, the candidate for the post of chancellor from the CDU continued to express her opinion on the benefit of returning to strategic relations with Washington.
Local German commentators explain her rather cold attitude towards Russia by her experience of living in Eastern Germany until 1990. Once Merkel even told journalists, that one of the most dramatic moments of her childhood was the theft of her bicycle committed by a Russian soldier.
Wolfgang Schauble Advises Germany to be Guided by America
Schauble, the deputy chief of the Christian Democrat / Christian Social parliamentary group, a man who received the post of "European and foreign affairs adviser" in the " team of professionals", has a huge influence on the CSU leadership and on Angela Merkel’s personal position concerning Russia.
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Wolfgang Schauble |
Schauble – a veteran of the German politics of the old school, made a great deal in the eighties, under chancellor Helmut Kohl, about the fall of East Germany and the Soviet army’s withdrawal from its territory. Later Schauble held the post of Interior Minister and was responsible, among other duties, for activity of the German counterespionage service. (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz - BfV). In this context he actively cooperated with his American colleagues and acquired rather influential friends in the American political and intelligence services establishment.
Already in the nineties Schauble earned a reputation as an expert in the field of international relations. Therefore, after leaving the post as head of the opposition CDU's parliamentary group in 2000, he held the post of the head of CDU's foreign policy department (CDU-Aubenpolitiker). In this position he repeatedly criticized the internal policy of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, openly naming it a dictatorial one. He bestowed a special criticism upon the actions of the Russian armies in the Chechen Republic, and also the traditional silence of chancellor Schroeder on this issue. " You may afford some critical statements concerning Your Russian friends!" - he declared in the Bundestag in September 2004. Schauble also demanded the involvement of Poland in the process of cooperation with Russia and France.
Only three weeks prior to the official announcement of the CDU on the creation of the "team of professionals", on July 27, Wolfgang Schauble came to Washington where he received an audience with President Bush in the Oval office of the White House. With Bush in this meeting was the National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, for the American side. Before his assignment to this post in 2004, Hadley specialized in the European aspect of American foreign policy.
Schauble also had a meeting with the head of the American foreign policy department, formerly Hadley's superior, Condoleezza Rice. The meetings in Washington were devoted to the discussion of the directions of future strategic cooperation of Germany and the USA in the eventuality of the CDU's victory in the forthcoming elections.
After returning to Berlin, Wolfgang Schauble undertook an interesting foreign policy step, allowing speculation on the concrete directions of the work stipulated in Washington. Following his idea Angela Merkel visited Warsaw on August 18. The visit was preceded by a campaign in the Polish press, directed to explaining the CDU's position concerning Poland. In the articles authorized by Schauble, Poland was referred to as "our France in the East" and it was noted that the foreign policy of Germany and Europe must consider the interests of Warsaw. In this connection it has been declared also, that the CDU completely supports the "Polish allies" position concerning the Polish community in Belarus. And Merkel herself, during meetings with leaders of the Polish republic, declared that the Eastern policy of the European Community cannot be carried out "over the heads of Poles". She also promised that after her victory in the elections the structure of the Paris - Berlin- Moscow axis will undergo changes: the Russian capital will give its place to Warsaw.
ELECTIONS 2005
Germany
Germany - Russia:
The End of the Unnatural Union? (19.08.05)
Schroeder - Putin Pact: Germany and Russia Divide Europe Again (04.05.05)
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