London – Before the final votes in GermanyThe elections were even counted, Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Christian Christian Union in the center-right, who should become the next Chancellor, has promised a major change in relations with the United States
In a post -electoral debate, he promised to face a new reality – that the Trump administration seeks to cancel around 80 years of policy and raises the prospect of abandoning security guarantees for Europe.
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really reach the independence of the United States,” said Merz on Sunday.
A poster of Friedrich Merz, the German conservative candidate for the Chancellor and leader of the Party of the Christian Democratic Christian Union (CDU), is suspended at the party’s headquarters near a poster of Chancellor Rival Olaf Scholz of SPD, after the general elections in Berlin, Germany, February 24. , 2025.
Angelika Warmuth / Reuters
Merz added: “I never thought that I should say something like that in a television show. But after Donald Trump’s statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.
The conservative party of the Merz CDU has become the largest party in the German Parliament, the Bundestag, with 28.6% of the votes. The SPD, the outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, has arrived in third place.
Trump and members of his two administrations have called over the years so that the American allies have been investing more in NATO and Europe assumes its own security.
“However, we have also clearly indicated for years – decades, even – that it is unacceptable that the UNITED STATES And the United States taxpayer continues to bear the burden not only from the cost of war in Ukraine, but the defense of – Europe, “said Mike Waltz, Trump National Security Advisor.
He added: “We fully support our NATO allies. We fully support the commitment of article 5. But it is time for our European allies to intensify.”
Merz also spoke of NATO, suggesting that it may even be necessary to replace the military alliance with a new European security structure.
“I am very curious to see how we head to the NATO summit at the end of June,” he said. “That we will always talk about NATO in its current form or if we will have to establish an independent European defense capacity much faster.”
Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Union conservative of Germany, supporters of supporters after the first surveys of exit from the German general elections were announced on television during the electoral evening in Berlin on February 23, 2025.
Ina Fassbender / AFP via Getty Images
His remarks were made before the number of final votes.
This month, vice-president JD Vance delivered a speech at the Munich security conference, telling European leaders that the greatest threats they were confronted from “the interior”, minimizing the risks of security posed by China or Russia.
While Germany seeks to recalibrate its relationship with the United States, the second part in the elections, the extreme right alternative for Germany, was jubilant to their strongest ever shown.
In particular supported by Elon Musk, the high performance of AFD, which doubled the level of support they received the last time, was greeted as a victory.
It is the strongest projection of a far -right party in Germany since the Second World War.
“We have obtained a historical result. We have never been stronger in the Federal Parliament,” said Alice Weidel, a party co -president, to an enthusiastic crowd. “We have become the second strongest force as an alternative for Germany. And we have now been firmly established as a people party.”
Musk declared on Monday in An article on social networks That it was “only a matter of time” until AFD won an election.
