One month before the general elections are held in Germany, the conservative candidate for the German Chancellery, Friedrich Merz, outlined this Thursday what the future German Government will be like in terms of foreign and security policy in the event that, as everyone points out, polls, becomes the next chancellor and made it clear that airing the internal disputes of the German Government will be a thing of the past.
Merz, who earned his fortune working in the private sector and was the leader in Germany of BlackRock – the largest investment fund in the world – before returning to politics in 2018, at the age of 63, stressed this Thursday that he cannot face the new challenges with the current foreign and security policy instruments and also asked for calm when asked about the new US president, Donald Trump, and his statements about a hypothetical annexation of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“I firmly assume that Donald Trump will not assert his interest in Greenland against the territorial interests and also the political objections of Denmark and the European Union,” said the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at an event organized by the Foundation Körber in Berlin. “And if not, then we will have to talk seriously to him about it,” he added. Meanwhile, on the economic level, he was in favor of a new attempt to reach a free trade agreement with the United States and “avoid a spiral of tariffs that impoverishes both Europeans and Americans.”
These statements are in line with his Atlanticist vision. Merz, who comes first in the latest voting intention polls by 34%, has a deep personal connection with the United States and the Anglo-Saxon world that other conservative chancellors did not have. After being sidelined by Angela Merkel in the early 2000s, he embarked on a transatlantic business career and was, among other things, president of Atlantik-Brücke, an organization promoting closer relations between the United States and Germany.
But despite this vision, Merz wants Europe to be seen as an equal by the White House, which will require a strong and united Germany. This will also be essential to be able to confront “the axis of autocracies” that has emerged in the last decade and that “is exerting a destabilizing influence in all regions of the world.” In this context, Merz explained that the change will be made in three steps.
Firstly, it will restore Germany’s full capacity to act in matters of foreign security and European policy, for which it will be necessary to put an end to “the Government’s permanent public disputes.” “The public disputes of recent years have meant that neither our partners nor our adversaries knew what Germany’s position was in international politics,” criticized the conservative politician about the failed coalition of social democrats, greens and liberals headed by Olaf Scholz and which led to advance the elections to February 23. To this end, it will create a National Security Council in the Foreign Ministry, which will focus decision-making on all key foreign, security, European and development policy issues. The latter must be applied to promote Germany’s strategic interests in the world.
Regain trust
In his opinion, a united Germany is also for the benefit of Europe. Regaining the trust of partners and allies in the world is the second step in this policy change. The third will be to define strategic priorities and apply them. At this point, he will seek to restore relations with Poland and France after years of deterioration.
In the middle of the debate on defense spending, the CDU leader reaffirmed his position that before talking about more money, the first thing is to carry out a fundamental reform of the European and NATO defense system. He criticized the existence of so many different weapons systems and advocated for a “genuine European internal market for defense equipment.”
That single voice that he seeks for Germany and the European Union implies that no European leader travels to Washington without coordinating with his counterparts, since, in his opinion, Europe will only be perceived as strong with a common position as Europeans. At the moment, it seems that Giorgia Meloni is going it alone, since she was the only European head of government present at Trump’s inauguration. This good relationship between the Italian prime minister and the American president is something that Merz wants to take advantage of.
“I don’t understand the reservations in Europe towards Giorgia Meloni,” Merz said at the Davos forum. “She is a convinced European and clearly supports Ukraine. “Why don’t we talk to her more often?” he asked, ignoring the fact that she is a politician with roots in neo-fascism and years of anti-European rhetoric. Merz is not the only one who sees it this way. Her position is in line with her party colleague and president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who sees the Italian leader as a nationalist, but pragmatic, and with whom she has not hesitated to form a surprising alliance that they have called themselves Team Europe.
For Jana Puglierin, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank, this position of Merz is already known and she recalls that before the European election campaign, the European People’s Party (EPP) defined the conditions under which it can cooperate with the parties to his right. “This explicitly included Meloni,” he says by phone. The two important criteria for making this decision are based on support for Ukraine and the EU. “In both cases, Meloni agrees with the position of the EPP,” he indicates, noting that many in Germany hope that the Italian president can form “a bridge with the Trump Administration.” “In other words, you can also turn to European heads of government who are closer to Trump than perhaps others, but who can still speak on behalf of Europe,” he adds. However, in his opinion, this approach may be questionable. “I would criticize him. It could be said that it takes too little into account Meloni’s domestic policy plans in Italy, the reform of the judiciary and his dealings with the media,” the expert acknowledges.
Regarding how Merz can get closer to Meloni and at the same time maintain a cordon sanitaire with the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) – second in voting intention according to the polls – Puglierin has no doubt. “The difference between AfD and Meloni is very clear: AfD does not support Ukraine, nor NATO, nor Ukraine and has a closeness to Russia that Meloni does not have. And that is the decisive difference for Merz.”
