Arrived at the top of the legislative elections in Germany this Sunday, the curator Friedrich Merz held an alarmist speech on the future of the EU.
Friedrich Merz is on the way to succeed Angela Merkel, after having been put on the touch by the ex-chancellius in the 2000s. Arrived at the top of the federal elections with nearly 29% of the votes this Sunday, February 23, the leader of The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) seems to take revenge. The extreme right of the alternative for Germany (AFD) achieves a historic breakthrough by obtaining 20% of the vote, the double of four years ago. Conversely, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) collapses with 16% of the votes.
This Chancellor’s defeat is a renewed hope for Friedrich Merz, in the process of becoming the most American -speaking head of government in German history, according to Politico. With a hundred round trips to the United States and a fervent admiration for former American president Ronald Reagan, the boss of the CDU/CSU Alliance is enough to weave enthusiastic relations with the United States.
But that was without counting on the election of populist Donald Trump and the intervention of JD Vance at the Munich on security conference on February 14. Invited on the spot, the American vice-president accused European democracies of stifling freedom of expression and religious freedom. In his eyes, the greatest threat that hovers on the old continent is “neither Russia nor China”, but “the renunciation of Europe to some of its most fundamental values”.
Merz’s “alarm signal”
Unsurprisingly, this speech did not please Friedrich Merz, in full disillusionment in the face of his dear America. “We are really witnessing a change of era,” he replied on stage. “If we do not hear the alarm signal now, it could be too late for the whole of the European Union,” he warned.
This Sunday, after his victory in the German legislative elections, the probable future chancellor has depressed the nail by posting as “absolute priority” the strengthening of European defense so that the old continent is gradually reaching independence from states -Unis “. On Ard television, he even mentioned “an autonomous European defense capacity” as an alternative to “NATO in its current form”.
“I would not have thought I had to say something like that,” conceded the boss of the German right shaped by the Atlanticist doctrine. “But after Donald Trump’s last week’s statements, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this government, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he deplored.
Considering the bifurcation of Merz, the discourse of the vice president, undoubtedly caused a shock wave – desired or not – on the elites of defense and diplomacy united each year in the Bavarian capital. Before him, only Vladimir Putin had been responsible for such a level of amazement. Invited for the first time in Munich in 2007, he had made virulent comments on the United States, which he accused of wanting to establish a unipolar order.