I came across this really interesting article on the ambassador: [https://www.dw.com/uk/posol-andrii-melnyk-nedyplomatychnyi-dyplomat-u-berlini/a-61382918](https://www.dw.com/uk/posol-andrii-melnyk-nedyplomatychnyi-dyplomat-u-berlini/a-61382918)
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The main thesis of the article is that “Andriy Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, is likely to change German policy with his statements. The President of Germany is forced to apologize.”
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The article argues that his sharp un-diplomatic criticisms of politicians has resonated deeply among the media, forcing politicians to address his comments head on. I’m an outsider so I have no idea what normal Germans think or how the media talks about this, but I found it really interesting that a diplomat from another country can have such a strong impact on the political landscape within a country.
Its far from the normal discourse that typically occurs among diplomats, but understandably the ambassador is trying to drive home a strong message and criticism. Usually when politicians are faced with such criticism, especially from the media, they mostly get defensive and try to brush off the comments. Quite the contrary here with politicians accepting the criticism and going so far to apologize even when they disagree with some tenets of the arguments.
So to what degree is this argument valid? I potentially see this ambassador strongly affecting the foreign policy of Germany going forward, but does he have the potential to affect the political landscape in Germany? Is there any potential in an ambassador unseating politicians due to his strong criticism, such as bringing up past mistakes to the fore front of political discourse?
3 comments
Notwithstanding the propaganda, foreign Diplomats cannot directly influence a sovereign country’s policies.
Not directly, and it would be a terrible abuse of diplomatic powers to do so deliberately.
I don’t speak Ukrainian and my Russian is very rusty, so I can’t read the article. But if German politicians are reacting in this way to criticism from an ambassador, it’s more likely because they don’t want to be seen to be opposing Ukraine at this time.
He does not have any say in German politics. However, as an ambassador, he does have a lot of leverage through the media, pushing politics to act. I can also fully understand his behaviour and I would probably do the same but his reasoning regarding gas and oil imports is not fair. We cannot hold gas imports from russia. This would greatly damage the German economy and cause tremendous harm. As much as I don’t want to have any ties ro russia, I do not want mass unemployment and extreme econimcal recession. A weakened Germany wouldn’t help Ukraine much. He really, really needs to shut up about this. We are doing everything we can to correct russia politics from the last 30 years but we can’t just flip a switch and not electrocute ourselves doing so. What we should do asap is deliver heavy offensive weapons, fighter jets and artillery to Ukraine.