German Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in a society where the government kept a Big Brother eye on its citizens. Now, critics say, she has assented to similar practices — this time coming from the U.S., not East Germany's fearsome secret police.
Revelations about U.S. surveillance around the world shocked many Europeans when details were leaked by Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency. Now critics are questioning their own leaders about whether they were complicit in monitoring a wide swath of Internet and phone traffic, and nowhere has the anger been fiercer than in Germany, where citizens guard their personal information far more jealously than do their American peers.
With Merkel campaigning for a third term in September polls, the U.S. surveillance and allegations of German complicity have rapidly emerged as a central campaign issue, and the chancellor has gone on a media blitz in recent days to assure voters that she was fighting for their rights.