Following renewed turbulence in transatlantic relations, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has clearly distanced himself from the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. In a government statement before the Bundestag on Thursday, Merz criticized Trump’s repeated tariff threats and his disparaging remarks about NATO’s role in Afghanistan. In view of the United States’ great-power posture, Europe must emancipate itself and “learn to speak the language of power politics itself,” the chancellor said. “As democracies, we are partners and allies, and not subordinates.”
Merz described it as a success of the “unity and determination of Europe” that President Trump withdrew the tariff threats he had issued during the dispute over Greenland. “We were agreed that we would not allow ourselves to be intimidated by tariff threats again,” he said. “Whoever believes they can pursue policy against Europe with tariffs must know, and now knows, that we are ready and able to defend ourselves against it.”
Europe must learn from this experience and present itself internationally with greater self-confidence and strategic resolve, Merz continued. “Unity is a power factor in the world.” Given the transatlantic tensions of recent weeks, Europe had “perhaps for the first time been able to see with its own eyes that we can be a power — precisely on the basis of the values we are not prepared to give up.”
Merz referred to a “newly adjusting self-confidence of Europeans.” Europe must continue on this path: “But we will only be able to use this activity and this self-confidence for ourselves, and we will only be able to assert our ideas at least in part in the world, if we ourselves learn to speak the language of power politics, if we ourselves become a European power.”
To achieve this goal, Europe must take on three tasks, Merz warned. It must do more for its own security and reduce the security dependencies “that we have all too carelessly entered into in recent years and decades.”
Second, Europe must overcome its economic weakness: “If we are serious about political capacity to shape events, then that capacity depends above all on economic strength,” he said. Third, Europe must act with unity on the world stage.
Merz expressed outrage at comments made by President Trump, who had downplayed the contribution of NATO partner nations to the Afghanistan mission after the attacks of September 11, 2001. “We will not allow this mission, which we undertook also in the interest of our alliance partner, the United States of America, to be disparaged and degraded today,” he said, drawing applause from lawmakers.
The chancellor made clear he did not intend to “carelessly put long-standing alliances at risk.” The transatlantic partnership, he said, “is still a value in itself for us in Germany.” NATO must be preserved and strengthened, especially by Europe, given the U.S. government’s skeptical stance. NATO, he said, remains “the best guarantee for peace and security, and therefore we as Europeans want to preserve NATO and strengthen it from Europe and within Europe.”
Germany and Europe must now also seek new alliances with other countries. It had “always been external shocks that have led to Europe continuing to develop,” Merz said. Germany would take an active lead.
“We, the Federal Republic of Germany, want to be part of a dynamic, agile network of sovereign states,” Merz said. The aim is partnerships with countries “that want to continue to uphold a rules-based order,” he added. As for his foreign policy, he said: “We want free trade, we want no tariffs or at most only low tariffs, because our experience shows that only open markets and free trade are the right path to prosperity and the security of nations.”
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