Pope Francis: “We must put an end to the irresponsible policy of intervention from the outside and building democracy in other countries”

Pope Francis attributed a quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Afghanistan to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he called “one of the great figures in world politics”.

The error occurred during an interview broadcast on Wednesday to Spanish radio COPE, in which he was asked about the crisis in the Asian country. Regarding the departure of American troops and their NATO allies and whether the population has been “left to fend for themselves”, Francisco replied: “From what we see here, they were not taken into account, it seems, I don’t want to judge, not all eventualities have been taken into account”.

And then he quoted the sentence according to which he said “it was his turn” on the subject: “We must put an end to the irresponsible policy of intervention from the outside and of building democracy in others. country, ignoring the traditions of the peoples ”, but he attributed it to Merkel during the meeting in Moscow with Putin on August 20.

However, this phrase was uttered by the Russian president during the meeting with the German Chancellor in strong criticism of the imposition of democratic values ​​on other countries by the West.

“We must put an end to the irresponsible policy of imposing foreign values ​​from the outside, of the ambitions of building democracy in other countries according to foreign molds without taking into account historical, national, religious peculiarities and completely ignoring the traditions of these peoples, “Putin underlined after the meeting with Merkel.

In the interview broadcast Wednesday, the Catholic leader continued, “I don’t know if there will be a review or not, but there has certainly been a lot of deception on the part of maybe the new authorities. I say deceit or a lot of naivety, I don’t understand. But here I would see the way. And that of Mrs Merkel I think that underlines it ”.

Sunday, Francisco had already spoken about the Afghan crisis. “I follow the situation in Afghanistan with great concern. I share the suffering of those who mourn the people who lost their lives in the suicide bombings (perpetrated) on Thursday and those who ask for help and protection, ”he said in the traditional Angelus prayer to the audience gathered in St. Peter’s Square. .

(With information from EFE)

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