Key points
- Friedrich Merz has questioned the future of NATO
- He has demanded Europe boost its own defences
- EU does not have to rely on US for its defence: Friedrich Merz
BERLIN: Germany’s Friedrich Merz has vowed to achieve “independence” from the United States after his alliance won parliamentary polls held amid doubts regarding US President Donald Trump’s promise to Europe’s security.
BBC reported that declaring the US indifferent to the EU’s fate, Friedrich Merz questioned the future of NATO and demanded Europe boost its own defences.
According to Western media and Al-Jazeera Merz, who faces complex talks with his party’s traditional centre-left rival to form a coalition government following ruling out the second-placed Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Sunday that it would be his “absolute priority” to strengthen Europe so it does not have to rely on US for its defence.
Trump’s latest remarks
“I never thought I would have to say something like that on TV, but after Trump’s latest remarks in the last week, it is clear that the Americans, or at least this portion of the Americans, this government, care very little about the fate of Europe,” the chancellor-in-waiting told a televised roundtable of political leaders.
Merz stated that he was not sure that NATO would exist in its “current form” by the time of the next meeting of the alliance in June, “or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly”.
“That is my absolute priority, I have no illusions at all about what will come out of America,” Merz said.
