Fmr. German Chancellor Angela Merkel Looks Back on Her Time in Power | Amanpour and Company

When Trump first became president in 2016, his predecessor Barack Obama privately told Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was now the leader of the free world. Now, eight years later, it seems all that she worked for -- including multilateralism and strong alliances -- is on the way out, giving way to hard-line policies on trade, migration, and more. Angela Merkel was one of Europe's longest-serving and most powerful leaders. She served as head of state for 16 years, working with four U.S. presidents, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. Merkel grew up in Communist East Germany, behind what was then the Iron Curtain. A scientist by training, Merkel ran her government on a basis of facts, compromise and pragmatism. She is now opening up about her time in power, dishing on Trump, Putin, and some of her legacy-defining decisions, such as welcoming more than one million Syrian refugees into Germany. Merkel joins Christiane in Washington, one stop on her "Freedom" book tour.

Originally aired on December 3, 2024

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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