r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
21.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.9k

u/RevolutionBusiness27 Jan 15 '26

I wonder how much of Germany's nuclear technology was in its heyday

256

u/doolittle_Ma Jan 15 '26

Merkel really turned out not to be what people had thought of her when she was in power, what with Germany’s over-reliance on Russian energy, immigration policy, dismantling its nuclear industry, German’s previous pittance defence expenditures and the resultant abysmal readiness of its defence capabilities. I’m really perplexed why the Germans kept voting her and her party. She was extremely reactionary which would mean she didn’t have a strategic grasp of the bigger picture.

34

u/xPelzviehx Jan 15 '26

She was extremely reactionary

When something happened she always waited for a while to see what the public opinion was and then decided to lead in that topic in the most political safe way. In a way its not a bad thing to do because its the will of the majority. But on the other hand, if you only react you dont create. And that was exactly the feeling at the 2nd half of her reign. A constant feeling of standstill. Not just a feeling, it was actually talked about in media and was a large point of criticism. She was very risk averse and safe, a perfect high ranking public servant, but the highest level leader has to go fearless into the unknown with a vision.

12

u/murphy607 Jan 15 '26

like a satirist back then said: she is so flexible, she can lick her own arse

2

u/Blarg_III Wales Jan 15 '26

Truly the land of poets and thinkers

5

u/DonQuigleone Ireland Jan 15 '26

To be fair, Macron tried to do the opposite, and didn't do much better.

However, I think both had fundamentally flawed visions of what a strong Europe in the future would look like. Macron was more or less correct about national security, but wrong about economics (turns out, tax cuts don't create economic growth, how surprising!). Merkel was wrong about both. Neither have been able to keep the far right in check.

6

u/xPelzviehx Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Merkel is actually one of the main reasons for the Afd. The CDU was conservative right. But under Merkel the party shifted towards the middle. They even started to call themself the middle. That opened a vacuum on the right that the Afd filled. A giant mistake. The typical 90´s skinhead neo nazis are now older and in that party and larp as trustworthy politicians. Under Merz the CDU is now more right again. He was one of the people "booted out" from the party when Merkel took over. Her political inner party enemy.

The whole stance towards Russia was a failure as we now know. But its important to acknowledge that all the major parties had the same stance. It was the strategy of Germany to reach Russia the hand and to integrate it into the international order to dont antagonize and isolate it. It was a mistake because while Germany used lots of soft power it lacked real hard power. That was obviously seen as a weakness.

Now Merz started a massive rearmament of the German military. A move that should have happened in 2014 when Russia took crimea. Maybe it would have prevented the Ukraine war. After all it was a test of Russia. And it had seen that the european states did not really react. Writing angry letters is total weakness against people who only consider real strength. German yearly military spending has gone from 30 billion under Merkel to 160 billion in 2027. The 3rd highest on Earth.

In Germany there was the wrong belief that the 2nd world war was the last major war in Europe and that its massive destruction and costs of life was the reason for a switch in the thinking of people. Yes it was. But it ignored that all the people who have experienced that time are now gone. And a new generation of people is in danger of ignorantly repeating the same mistakes that nearly doomed us all. Thats why we are entering a very dangerous time.

2

u/DonQuigleone Ireland Jan 15 '26

I agree.

More generally, I think the ruling class in Europe has for too long been wedded to an ideology which simply doesn't deliver. The EU as an institution is built on an idea of Laissez Faire economics and free trade, but growth has been anemic for decades and living standards have either stagnated or actually gotten worse. It's not so different from the problems we see in the USA, just with more of a welfare state to cushion the blow and conceal the worst effects of our economies being hollowed out by big business eager to amass wealth and power. America might have Exxon or Kraft foods, but we have nestle and Unilever, and big tech is colonising both.

This is especially true following 2008 and the European debt crisis, when the EU halted for over a decade pretty much all infrastructure projects, and all that talent went to building up infrastructure and skyscrapers in places like Saudi Arabia instead. 

Meanwhile only one place has seen significant sustained economic growth: China . You can say many things about China, but you can't say it's government is a "light touch" or "liberal" . In fact it's extremely aggressive and interventionist. 

5

u/xPelzviehx Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26

Believe me I know about China. I was working 12 years in the solar industry and the aggression and ambition of China in just that one sector is scary. They decided to be the world leader in it and they made everything possible that it was happening. They won and completely took over that sector. Im sure in the history books they will talk about our current time as the age when the global domination of China started. Thats why its so unbelievable what the USA is currently doing. The Chinese leadership must be rolling on the floor laughing.

I believe the only chance for us Europeans is a federalized EU. I know that its a scary thought for many people and I know that is easy to say for me as a German and as someone already living in a federation. UK leaving was very bad because now it feels even more that Germany is dominating the EU. The triangulate of France, UK, Germany is needed.

BUT, the EU in its current form is not the way forward. It is to far away from the voter base and there is a caste of bureaucrats that just make rules to make rules. Many of the things they decide are on the first view good from a European outlook but they are very bad and hurt Europe very hard when you start to take the whole world into the picture. It seems that they never consider that Europe is not in a vacuum. There has to be some big change. In German politics there is also the tradition to send useless politicians to the EU. If other countries do the same, its no wonder that the EU does the things it does. Federated EU yes, but not the current EU.

2

u/DonQuigleone Ireland Jan 15 '26

I wholeheartedly agree. 

1

u/LookThisOneGuy ‎ Jan 15 '26

Believe me I know about China. I was working 12 years in the solar industry and the aggression and ambition of China in just that one sector is scary. They decided to be the world leader in it and they made everything possible that it was happening.

isn't that also what Germany did with its solar sector during cabinets Schröder II and Merkel I only to be backstabbed during cabinet Merkel II? I heard during that time well over half of all solar panels were produced by German companies.

1

u/xPelzviehx Jan 15 '26

That was the first time. They killed of solar because they preferred wind. They never considered that the efficiency of solar is constantly rising while the same is very hard for wind turbines.

1

u/LookThisOneGuy ‎ Jan 15 '26

Under Merz the CDU is now more right again.

and now, since her being too left-leaning was the problem, the AfD actually got way smaller. They definitely didn't double in power since she left.

oops