Gerhard Schröder - by far the worst German political leader after World War II

The "flawless" democrat together with his German friend and promoter.

It is now quite obvious that Gerhard Schröder, former chancellor, has been - and, regrettably to a degree still is - the by far worst leader Germany has had since the end of World War II. 

Schröder´s role as a promoter - and beneficiary - of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is wellknown. Schröder also deceived the US government about his pledge to support the toppling of Saddam´s regime in Iraq. The former chancellor has also gone to great lengths to make Iran´s president Ahmadinejad politically respectable. 

Now Der Spiegel has unearthed documents which show that Schröder was the the man who made the present euro crisis possible by his activities in the early 2000s: 

In the early 2000s, Germany was struggling to adhere to euro-zone criteria aimed at ensuring common currency stability. Instead of introducing austerity, however, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder simply launched an effort to change the rules. New documents show just how key his role was in weakening the Stability Pact.
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Seven years later, that which triggered the celebratory mood at the time is now seen as a lapse that made possible the current crisis faced by the European common currency. It permanently undermined confidence in a set of regulations that was intended to force countries to pursue responsible fiscal policy. Afterwards, several countries felt sufficiently emboldened to abandon their efforts to limit spending.
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It is widely accepted that this corset was loosened at the insistence of Germany and France. In truth, however, the weakening of the Stability and Growth Pact was primarily the work of one man: Gerhard Schröder. He received support from his chief of staff, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and from Reinhard Silberberg, head of the European division in the Foreign Ministry. Documents from the Chancellery, released in response to a SPIEGEL request, show that Schröder and his government were the driving force behind the effort. They also show that attempts by Eichel and his ministry to resist were ultimately in vain as he was forced to give in to pressure from Schröder. What's more, Schröder picked Eichel to convince the remaining holdouts among Germany's euro-zone allies.


Read the entire article here