The line goes all the way around the block. Some arrived two hours ago, crowded in the cold under the lights of the first Christmas decorations, to enter the large Dussmann bookstore on Friedrichstrasse, Berlin’s shopping street. A gentleman leaves disappointed, with his blue copy in his hand: “She scribbled quickly and didn’t even look at me! “. Inside, former Chancellor Angela Merkel signs the first copies of her memoirs, published on November 26 in Germany and in thirty countries, including France.
“Merkel, it’s part of my childhood, says Nicolas, a 23-year-old political science student standing in line. People of my generation don’t like him, they say he did nothing for the climate, nothing for infrastructure, no reform, that he really had no vision. It’s true. But there was a sense of stability when she led the country. Even if it’s just a feeling and not the truth. » A few meters away, a tourist is photographed smiling while showing his signed copy. “Merkel is much more than politics, she is a cultural phenomenon! “, laughs Marc, also a student, observing the scene. “I am very critical, no one regrets her, but I only came to observe the character,” he justifies. The many admirers waiting here are imbued with a certain nostalgia, associating the Merkel years with a certain prosperity while Germany is doing poorly and the rest of the world is not doing much better. “His way of leading is really poor”sighs a young woman. “If he were still here, he could have formed alliances to better manage the war, says a high school student who wants to go into politics and who came with his mother and brother. Even if he was wrong about Putin, he would do better than Scholz.”
The publication of Merkel’s memoirs was organized like a rock star tour, with a small number of sold-out events: public readings streamed live on the Internet, signings in Berlin, Cologne and Stralsund (her former constituency), in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. television shows, podcasts and then a conversation in Washington with Barack Obama on December 2. The publisher has cultivated secrecy: no circulation or copyright figures have been made public.
“Even in retrospect, there is no mistake!” »
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