German politicians are having trouble keeping up with the latest developments: Just over a week ago, US Vice President JD Vance accused them of censorship and told them to cooperate with the far-right populist Alternative for Germany ( AfD ) party rather than treat it as a pariah at the Munich Security Conference, a high-level annual gathering of political leaders and defense specialists.
A few days after, the German state, along with every other Western head, was left out of discussions in Saudi Arabia between the American and Russian diplomats.
The European government sees these as unalterable qualifications for peace, and US staff have made it clear that Ukraine cannot hope for the restoration of its 2014 borders or for Nato account. It also vows to continue supporting Ukraine on its part in the fight against the Russian invasion.
Trump also demanded pay for US funding for Ukraine through its natural resources, grossly exaggerating the amount of support it was sending. Lastly, US President Donald Trump adopted Russia’s perspective and objective entirely, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator”, demanding Ukraine hold primaries quickly, during war, and yet falsely accusing Zelenskyy of starting the war in the first place.
Berlin in horror
European officials are perplexed by all of this. Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the media shop Der Spiegel on Wednesday:” It is just bad and dangerous to issue President Zelenskyy’s political legitimacy”, he said. Elections were held in 2019 and 2024, but according to Ukraine’s law, elections can only be held in times of serenity.
Robert Habeck, the vice-chancellor of Germany, claimed Trump’s distortion of the information was “almost unacceptable” according to Habeck in an interview with ARD.
” This is basically a classic perpetrator-victim reversal, this is the Russian narrative”, said Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union ( CDU), who, going by opinion polls, is currently most likely to be the next German chancellor. ” And to be fair, I am somewhat surprised that Donald Trump has now evidently adopted this narrative”, Merz continued. He continued, claiming that” the world’s two countries are currently experiencing a real paradigm shift in foreign and security policy.”
Merz, who was well-known as a dedicated transatlanticist, had a tendency to back down when criticizing Trump and advocated for a sane approach to the new leadership in Washington. However, Merz does not appear to be surprised by the scope of the threats.
Transatlantic popular ground fades
Within days, Trump and his government staff have been destroying all links between the US and Germany.
For” for as long as necessary,” President Joe Biden and Scholz had repeatedly stated their willingness to support Ukraine in its protective challenge. No fear was always expressed about either Russia’s ultimate role for the conflict or Zelenskyy’s democratic legitimacy.
Both leaders backed up their conviction that Ukraine was likewise defending Europe as a whole, not merely defending itself against the Soviet attacker. Never was it discussed requiring “rare planets” in exchange for weapons. With Trump, there is now little left of such simple intercontinental contracts.
Relying on themselves
The absolute speed of Trump’s activities gives the impression that they completely messed up the German governments. How does they, how you Germany behave?
If he does not get Sunday’s vote, both Merz and Scholz have stated they want to keep Germany’s support for Ukraine. They may remain in office until a new governor is sworn in, which could take as long as two weeks. He told people journalist ZDF,” We have to maintain our own security,” stressing that all European states must unite and become strong enough to deter potential attackers.
According to Merz, “it is now crucial that the Europeans come together very, very quickly to find a popular technique,” Merz told public broadcaster RBB. Europe may also gain leverage, rather than beg for a seat at the table.
Henning Hoff agrees. According to him,” The following European authorities should work closely with its Western allies to close the potential spaces that a US drawback from Europe does left behind.” ” This will all be challenging, but we should at least prevent preventing our European allies from reaching out to us.”
The continued provocations from Washington appear to have led to a rapprochement between Merz’s center-right CDU and Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats ( SPD ) ahead of Sunday’s general election.
Because the party leaders are aware that they may need to build a partnership, their speech has been toned down. They concur that, under Trump, who has successfully wiped out the old intercontinental ambiguities in a short period of time, Germany needs to develop a strong strategy to deal with the US.
