Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who launched her book 'Freedom. Memoirs 1954-2021' at the Romanian Athenaeum on Tuesday, said Romania had achieved a great deal in recent decades and voiced confidence that a compromise could be reached to pave the way for the formation of a government in Romania.

'Of course, I cannot say anything about this particular issue, except that I hope you will have an elected prime minister again. I can only say that something is happening in our societies in general and through social and digital media, namely that the value of compromise is coming under increasing pressure. There is no region, no party or government that has an absolute majority. And within parties there are all sorts of different ideas and factions. If you are not willing to compromise,' Merkel said during a public dialogue with diplomat Emil Hurezeanu, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs.


She brought to mind that she is sometimes criticised in Germany for having done many things far too slowly.

'From an objective point of view, that is certainly true. On the other hand, (...) what does democracy mean? It means that I have to find a majority for my decision. Of course, sometimes that creates a conflict. We have to reform the healthcare system, the tax system and pensions and, at the same time, I have voters whom I want to satisfy and whom I want to please. So there is always pressure to say that we cannot carry out this reform, that one is too fast. Then you also have populist parties that criticise whatever you do anyway and do not have to provide any arguments. I am not talking about Romania now, but about Germany. We are having discussions about pensions in Germany, with pensions set at 48% of the last salary, while the AfD, the populist party, says 70%. But they are never asked where the money is supposed to come from. People say, 'Well, money is being spent on so many other things, so why shouldn't it be possible?' And now the middle of society, the centre of society, has to be strong enough to take this difficult path towards finding a compromise. And you must not make an individual decision at government level. You cannot go out and say, 'If I had been on my own, I would have made a different decision,' saying that 'the ideal situation would have been different,' because you do not convince people that way. Citizens want to know: OK, this is how we acted as a government and I am not going to start bad-mouthing my partner tomorrow. We can say, 'Quite simply, it was not possible to do more. This is what you chose and now, step by step, we have to see how we move forward.' And whoever gets angry every day 'will not achieve good results,'' the former Chancellor said, according to the official translation.


Angela Merkel believes that 'digital media receive a great deal of attention when you talk about something that is not working.'

'And I can only hope that in Romania there are enough people who respect the other parties enough to come together, because we cannot have elections twice a year. Elections are the result of what citizens think. They do not simply come out of nowhere. And Romania has achieved a great deal in recent decades. Perhaps not everything at the desired pace, but there are issues that need to be addressed and we need people who are willing to compromise. (...) I believe you have a few. I wish you all the best,' the former Chancellor stressed. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Popescu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)

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