BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th April, 2021) Over the past 10 years, Germany has spent over 750 million Euros (over $900 million) to support countries that went through the Arab Spring protests, but the result "failed" expectations, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday.
"It was progress, accompanied by high hopes for democratization in many Arab countries. Now, 10 years later, much of sobering has come ... If we look at the expectations of those who took to the streets back then, we have to admit that it [Arab Spring] failed," Maas said at the EuropaCamp 2021 conference, noting that the wave of protests "was never what some expected."
According to Maas, Germany has invested more than "three quarters of a billion euros" in creation of democratic institutions in those countries.
"But such processes take a long time. It is a delusion to believe that demonstrations will in a few years change the system that has existed in its foundation for decades and centuries," the minister said.
The Arab Spring is a series of anti-government uprisings that started in Tunisia in 2010 and spread to other Arab countries, including Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. The consequences of the deadly protests, including the overthrow of the governments in Yemen and Egypt and the longstanding civil war in Syria, continue to impact middle Eastern and North African politics to this day.
