Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money

BERLIN: German voters head to the polls on Sunday, with the conservatives the strong favorites after a campaign rocked by a far-right surge and the dramatic return of US President Donald Trump.
Frontrunner Friedrich Merz has vowed a tough rightward shift if elected to win back voters from the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is eyeing a record result after a string of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
If he takes over from embattled center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as widely predicted given a yawning poll gap, the CDU leader has promised a “strong voice” in Europe at a time of chaotic disruption.
The pivotal vote in the European Union’s biggest economy comes amid tectonic upheaval in US-Europe ties sparked by Trump’s direct outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin over their heads to end the Ukraine war.
Across Europe, NATO allies worry about the future of the alliance, nowhere more than in Germany which grew prosperous under the US-led security umbrella.
However, it may take Merz many weeks to negotiate a coalition government, spelling yet more political paralysis in Berlin during such fraught time.

In a strange twist to the polarized campaign, the AfD has basked in the glowing support lavished on it by Trump’s entourage, with billionaire Elon Musk touting it as the only party to “save Germany.”
Trump, asked about the elections in Germany, which he has berated over its trade, migration and defense policies, said dismissively that “I wish them luck, we got our own problems.”
Merz, in his final CDU/CSU campaign event in Munich on Saturday, said Europe needed to walk tall to be able to “sit at the main table” of the world powers.
Voicing strong confidence, the 69-year-old former investment lawyer told supporters that “we will win the elections and then the nightmare of this government will be over.”
“There is no left majority and no left politics anymore in Germany,” Merz told a raucous beer hall, promising to tighten border controls and revive flagging Germany Inc.

For the next German leader, more threats loom from the United States, long its bedrock ally, if Trump sparks a trade war that could hammer Germany’s recession-hit economy.
Scholz will stay in charge as caretaker until any new multi-party government takes shape — a task which Merz has already said he hopes to achieve by Easter in two months.
Polling stations open at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) with more than 59 million Germans eligible to vote and first estimates based on exit polls expected after polls close at 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).
Up to 30 percent of voters remained undecided last week, among them Sylvia Otto, 66, who said that “I still find it difficult to make a decision this time.”
Speaking in Berlin, she said she wanted “a change — but now a change to the right. That’s very important to me.”
At an AfD rally elsewhere in Berlin, a 49-year-old engineer, who gave his name only as Christian, praised the party’s leader Alice Weidel as a “tough woman, stepping on the toes of the other parties.”
These, he said, “are now adopting the AfD’s programs and passing them off as their own. So she is doing something right.”

Germany’s political crisis was sparked when Scholz’s unhappy coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Trump was re-elected.
Scholz’s SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP had long quarrelled over tight finances.
The SPD’s historically low polls ratings of around 15 percent suggest Scholz paid the price for policy gridlock and Germany’s parlous economic performance at a time the Ukraine war sent energy prices through the roof.
Frustration with the leadership fueled the rise of the AfD, which has been polling at 20 percent but looks set to stay in opposition as all other parties have vowed to keep it out of power.
The AfD, strongest in the ex-communist east, is on track for its best-ever result after Germany was shocked by a series of high-profile attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers.
In December a car-ramming through a Christmas market crowd killed six people and wounded hundreds, with a Saudi man arrested at the scene.
More deadly attacks followed, both blamed on Afghan asylum seekers: a stabbing spree targeting kindergarten children and another car-ramming attack in Munich.
On Friday, a Syrian man who police said wanted to “kill Jews” was arrested after a Spanish tourist was stabbed in the neck at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.
While Merz has vowed to shutter German borders and lock up those awaiting deportation, the AfD has argued that Germans will “vote for the original.”
 

LONDON: London will unveil a significant package of sanctions against Russia on Monday, which marks three years since the start of its war with Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Sunday.
“This is also the time to turn the screws on (Vladimir) Putin’s Russia,” Lammy said in a statement.
“Tomorrow, I plan to announce the largest package of sanctions against Russia since the early days of the war — eroding their military machine and reducing revenues fueling the fires of destruction in Ukraine,” he added.

UK’s decision to ramp up sanctions comes as US President Donald Trump has in recent weeks sought to sideline Kyiv and its European backers from talks with Russia on the future of the conflict.
“This is a critical moment in the history of Ukraine, Britain and all of Europe... Now is the time for Europe to double down on our support for Ukraine,” said Lammy.
London has already imposed sanctions on 1,900 people and organizations with link’s to Putin’s government since the start of the war, as of January 2025.
Its sanctions target the Russian financial, aviation, military and energy sectors, including through bank asset freezes, travel bans, and trade restrictions.

EU countries last week agreed a new round of sanctions which includes a ban on imports of Russian aluminum set to be formally adopted on Monday.

In his statement, Lammy reiterated UK’s military backing, which includes a pledge to provide £3 billion ($3.78 billion) annually to Kyiv and “being ready and willing to provide UK troops as part of peacekeeping forces if necessary.”
“Off the battlefield, we will work with the US and European partners to achieve a sustainable, just peace, and in doing so, remaining clear that there can be nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Lammy added.

On Saturday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer held separate phone calls with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, repeating a similar message to Lammy’s.
Starmer is headed to Washington to meet Trump on Thursday, hoping to act as a “bridge” between the US and Europe to ensure territorial and security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a deal to end the war.
The task looks increasingly challenging following a public spat in the last week between Zelensky and Trump, who called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” and hailed “good talks” with Russia.
Trump also accused Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron of doing nothing to end the war in a Fox News interview on Friday.
European countries fear that if Ukraine is forced into a bad deal by Washington then that will leave Putin claiming victory and the continent at the mercy of an emboldened Moscow.