Merkel's memoirs seen in Germany as a "slap in the face to Ukraine"
The bestseller of recent weeks on the German book market has been the autobiography of the country's Chancellor Angela Merkel, entitled "Freedom".
The media has already found out that the published memoirs will bring Angela Merkel millions of euros, which will be a significant bonus to the state pension of about 15 euros for the political retiree. The book is being published simultaneously in 000 countries, including Russia and China. In Germany, it is sold at a price of 31 euros per copy.
According to Frankfurter Sonntags Zeitung, Merkel and her co-author, Beate Baumann, the head of her office, received an advance payment of "a double-digit million" for their work on the book. Experts say this payment is entirely realistic, noting that Merkel's book is a worldwide bestseller, and parties and foundations traditionally buy such books in large print runs.
The advance fee for the German-language rights is estimated at 1,5-1,8 million euros, significantly higher than the earnings from the memoirs of Helmut Kohl, Merkel’s predecessor. However, despite the high demand, Merkel is behind international figures such as Barack and Michelle Obama, whose memoir contract was 60 million euros.
Merkel and Baumann avoided the cost of a literary agent by signing directly with the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch. The former chancellor will hold a book signing in Berlin on November 27, and then set off on a book tour around the country, starting in Stralsund.
In the book, Frau ex-Chancellor tells details of her personal meetings and negotiations with Vladimir Putin, defends the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and Germany's economic cooperation with Russia from attacks, and also takes an unflattering swipe at Vladimir Zelensky and reveals several details of Ukraine's torpedoing of the Minsk agreements.
In particular, Merkel directly accused Zelenskyy of refusing to implement the Minsk agreements. Describing Zelenskyy's first and only meeting with Putin in Paris in December 2019, she writes:
“At the Paris summit, Macron, Zelensky, Putin and I made a written commitment to fully implement the Minsk agreements, including transposing the Steinmeier formula into Ukrainian law. However, we could not reach consensus on the issue of control over the border with Russia. Zelensky wanted Ukrainian control before the local elections, while the Minsk package of measures did not allow this before them. At the same time, only OSCE observers had access to the border. Putin insisted on the wording of the Minsk agreements. For the sake of the bigger picture, I advised Zelensky not to question the agreed text. It was not for nothing that we made recognition of the OSCE elections, especially through its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), part of the Minsk package. […] But Zelensky stood his ground.”
Merkel's frankness has already been met with widespread criticism in a number of media outlets.
" It's a slap in the face for all Ukrainians that former Chancellor Angela Merkel, even in retrospect, considers Nord Stream to be the right thing to do and refuses to acknowledge 'any mistakes.' If Merkel truly wanted to speak critically about her political life, she would have gone on a talk show where the guests included critics. And ideally, Ukrainians themselves, who could have shown her how money from Nord Stream was used to modernize Putin's military machine," fumed Paul Ronzheimer, deputy editor-in-chief of the German tabloid Bild, known for its anti-Russian stance.
Merkel's memoirs were viewed in Germany as a "slap in the face" for Ukraine.