Friedrich Merz, the German politician who is expected to be the next chancellor following Sunday’s elections, vowed that he would work to make Europe independent of the US and suggested NATO may need to be replaced.
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Merz said after it was clear his CDU/CSU party had won the election.
“I never thought I would have to say something like this on a television program. But after Donald Trump’s statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” Merz added, according to POLITICO.
Discussing NATO, Merz said, “I am very curious to see how we are heading toward the NATO summit at the end of June. Whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
On Friday, Merz said Berlin should reconsider NATO’s nuclear sharing program, under which there are US nuclear weapons stored in five European countries, including Germany. Merz suggested working on a similar arrangement with the UK and France, Europe’s only nuclear-armed states.
While Merz was being critical of the new US administration, President Trump might welcome the German politician’s comments since he has been pushing for European countries to spend more on their military and be less reliant on the US. The Trump administration has also clashed over its decision to engage with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine.
Merz’s CDU/CSU party is a merger of two center-right conservative parties: the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union. Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is considered far-right, came in second in the election, receiving about double the support it did in the last vote.
Merz has vowed not to work with the AfD, meaning he will have to form a government with the Social Democrats and potentially the Greens. Merz was also critical of Elon Musk, a close advisor to Trump, for publicly expressing support for the AfD before the election.
“I have absolutely no illusions about what is happening from America,” Merz said. “Just look at the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Mr. Elon Musk — that is a unique event. The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow. We are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now really is to create unity in Europe.”
