https://arab.news/wzbcw
- Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America”
BERLIN: Germany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said Sunday that Europe must boost its own defense capabilities amid growing US-Europe tensions over Ukraine and NATO funding.
“For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA” in defense matters, Merz said.
“After Donald Trump’s statements in the last week it is clear that the Americans... are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said in a TV debate with other top candidates after the election.
“I am very curious to see what will happen between now and the NATO summit at the end of June,” he said.
But he added that it was questionable “whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.”
Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU alliance, said he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America.”
He also reiterated his condemnation of “the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Elon Musk.” The US tech billionaire and key Trump ally stridently supported the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and impertinent than the interventions we have seen from Moscow, so we are under massive pressure from two sides,” Merz said.