Ambassadors and Breitbart don’t mix
German politicians have called for Donald Trump’s envoy in Berlin to be expelled from the country after he said in an interview that he wanted to “empower” conservative forces throughout Europe.
Ambassador Richard Grenell, who has been in office for less than a month, has caused irritation in Berlin with a series of perceived breaches of diplomatic etiquette.
On Monday, the former Fox News contributor further strayed beyond his ambassadorial remit by requesting a short meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu at Berlin’s airport following the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with Angela Merkel.
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In Germany, Grenell’s series of unorthodox moves is drawing mounting criticism. Sahra Wagenknecht, the co-chair of leftwing party Die Linke, called for the envoy to be recalled to the US.
“If people like US ambassador Richard Grenell believe they can dictate like a lord of the manor who rules in Europe and who doesn’t, they can no longer remain in Germany as a diplomat,” Wagenknecht told Die Welt.
He’s not there to empower conservative forces. That’s not what ambassadors are supposed to do.
Martin Schulz, the former leader of the Social Democratic party, told German news agency dpa that he thought Grenell’s position as US ambassador was untenable in the long term.
“What this man is doing is unheard of in international diplomacy,” said the former leader of the European parliament, who failed to unseat Angela Merkel at federal elections in Germany last year.
Schulz said Grenell had acted like the representative of a political movement rather than a country, and punned that next week’s meeting with the Austrian leader Kurz, which means “short” in German, would lead to a shortening of the US envoy’s stint in Berlin.
In the Breitbart interview, Grenell said: “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders.
“I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”
Nah it’s because the right has no shame about lying.
When Angela Merkel is being described as the ‘left’, we know that the ‘right’ has well and truly jumped the shark.
As a friend said to me 2 years ago “When we’re regarding a right-wing chancellor of Germany as the best hope for democracy, things have got grim.”