Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pictured on November 7 in Berlin, at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski, where the interview took place.CATERINA BARJAU
Angela Merkel: ‘I am worried, we have to protect freedom’
She was Germany’s chancellor for 16 years. After leaving office in 2021, she disappeared. Now she is back with her memoirs, in which she reflects on her time in power and her life in the GDR. And she defends her legacy. EL PAÍS interviewed her in Berlin where she sends a message: ‘Freedom cannot be taken for granted’
MARC BASSETS
NOV 29, 2024 - 23:05
She was Germany’s chancellor for 16 years. After leaving office in 2021, she disappeared. Now she is back with her memoirs, in which she reflects on her time in power and her life in the GDR. And she defends her legacy. EL PAÍS interviewed her in Berlin where she sends a message: ‘Freedom cannot be taken for granted’
Pablo Picasso, from suspicious foreigner to French national treasure
A book and exhibition on the Spanish-born artist show how he was placed under police surveillance before finally being adopted by the country that once refused him citizenship
MARC BASSETS PARIS, NOVEMBER 8, 2021 English version by Rob Train
It could be considered a flagrant case of cultural appropriation before the expression entered common use: the story of how the Spanish artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso ended up being one of France’s greatest artistic glories.
In reality, it was all rather more complicated than that. For decades, from the first time the Málaga-born genius visited Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, the French authorities were suspicious of him. He was placed under police surveillance, a file was opened on his activities and he never renounced his Spanish citizenship. The only occasion he sought French nationality was in 1940, on the eve of the Nazi occupation. However, his application was denied. After World War II, France worked hard to be reconciled with the creator of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica, but by then Picasso had lost interest in acquiring French citizenship.
