Reuters/Berlin
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, a driving force of European integration, has launched an unusual public attack on Angela Merkel’s foreign policy, adding his voice to a chorus of criticism of her leadership from fellow conservatives.Kohl said policies ranging from cooperation with European partners to ties with the US lacked direction and risked undermining German influence.Kohl’s broadside is the latest sign of dissatisfaction with Merkel from within her centre-right coalition before next month’s parliamentary vote on the euro zone’s bailout fund.“Germany has not been a predictable factor for several years now - at home or abroad,” Kohl, Merkel’s political mentor in the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), said in an interview in Internationale Politik newspaper.“The enormous changes in the world can be no excuse for having no view or idea where you belong and where you are going.”As post-war Germany’s longest-serving chancellor, the key architect of German reunification and a major figure in Europe, the 81-year-old still commands respect in Germany.He said the EU had to stand by Greece in the debt crisis and took aim at Germany’s decision to abstain in a UN Security Council vote authorising military action to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya earlier this year.He also suggested that Germany was losing influence with the US, saying he would never have dreamt that a US president would visit Europe and not stop in Germany.“We must take care that we do not gamble everything away. We must urgently return to our former dependability,” he said.In response, Merkel said times had changed. “Every time has its own specific demands. The Christian-Liberal government is working to decisively master the challenges of our time together with our partners in Europe and the world,” she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.Kohl nurtured Merkel’s career but she later challenged her mentor in a party funding scandal that dented his reputation.Kohl’s blunt attack, which made the front pages of German newspapers yesterday, comes at a tough time for Merkel.Divisions are growing in her party in the run up to the parliamentary vote on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), to be held by September 23.In a sign Merkel knows she faces a battle, she cancelled a trip to Russia shortly before the vote, said a government source, and tried to reassure party members.“I understand many lawmakers who are concerned if we guarantee big sums for other euro zone states,” she told broadcaster NDR.“On the other hand, we are in a currency union and in a common Europe. Germany derives many advantages from that. Therefore we must also act in a way that shows solidarity.”Some fear that Merkel may have to rely on opposition support to win the vote, that could trigger a challenge to her position.The CDU’s Wolfgang Bosbach has said many party members rejected the planned changes to the EFSF agreed by European leaders in July.Even cabinet minister Ursula von der Leyen, once close to Merkel, caused embarrassment this week by unexpectedly weighing into a debate about guarantees for Greek aid.On top of that, conservative President Christian Wulff questioned the legality of the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme. Merkel told NDR she would not criticise the ECB as it made decisions independently.That Wulff, Merkel’s choice for president, felt it necessary to comment on the issue has raised eyebrows. Although his role is mainly ceremonial, he could theoretically refuse to sign the EFSF motion into law.“These statements ... reflect a general unease among wider parts of the general public with respect to the various rescue measures taken,” said Goldman Sachs economist Dirk Schumacher in a research note.