Germany
election: Merz says it’s ‘five to midnight’ for Europe
Leader of
victorious conservative alliance says continent must build defence capability
as US moves towards ‘America alone’ motto
Kate
Connolly in Berlin
Mon 24 Feb
2025 19.35 GMT
The man
expected to be Germany’s next chancellor has said Europe must act swiftly to
increase its defence capability in the face of a US administration whose motto
is moving towards “America alone”, adding: “This is really five minutes to
midnight for Europe.”
In a
wide-ranging press conference after his conservative alliance’s victory in
Sunday’s federal election, Friedrich Merz made it clear his focus was on the
turbulent geopolitical landscape, saying that although he would seek good ties
with the US he was also ready for “the worst-case scenario”.
Asked about
the doubling of support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, which
came second with 20% of votes, he urged Germany’s political mainstream to
recognise it as “the last warning”.
Effective
leadership was urgently needed to combat the AfD’s further rise and solve the
problems that had helped fuel its popularity, he told journalists. “This is
really the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in
Germany to come to common solutions.”
But, as the
69-year-old former banker prepared to begin the thorny task of forming a
government with Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), his first
comments on Monday – the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion –
were directed at Kyiv.
He posted on
X: “Europe stands unwaveringly by Ukraine’s side. Now more than ever, it holds
true: We must put Ukraine in a position of strength.”
In an
apparent sideswipe at Donald Trump’s administration after it began talks with
Russia last week about ending the war that excluded Ukraine and Europe, he
added: “For a just peace, the attacked country must be part of peace
negotiations.”
Merz, a
known transatlanticist – a proponent of a close relationship between the US and
Europe – later said that “all the signals we are receiving from the United
States indicate that interest in Europe is decreasing”.
“If those
who really do not just make ‘America first,’ but almost ‘America alone’ their
motto prevail, then it will be difficult,” he told reporters. “But I remain
hopeful that we will succeed in maintaining the transatlantic relationship.”
For many
years, Berlin had resisted calls from Paris to build up Europe’s defence
capabilities, feeling secure under the protection of the nuclear-armed US.
However,
Merz has made clear he felt Europe’s largest economy was facing a new era. “In
particular following the announcements from Washington in the past few weeks,
it’s clear that we Europeans now need to very hurriedly become capable to act,”
he said.
He also made
reference to interference from the Trump administration in Germany’s election
campaign, calling it unacceptable. Elon Musk, the president’s close ally,
congratulated the AfD’s candidate for chancellor after the anti-Islam party’s
strong performance in the election. On Monday Musk posted on X: “It is only a
matter of time before AfD wins.”
The AfD won
about twice the vote share it garnered at the last election three years ago.
But it will not be part of negotiations to form a coalition government because
of the “firewall” that has historically existed between mainstream parties and
the far right.
A jubilant
Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader and candidate for chancellor, called her
party’s performance “historic” and decried Merz’s refusal to enter into
coalition with the AfD as a “democracy blockade”, arguing that millions of
voters were in effect disfranchised by the decision.
The AfD did
particularly well in the former communist east, where it secured 43 out of 48
available seats after campaigning vigorously on an anti-Islam, anti-immigration
platform, and backing the “remigration” of immigrants and German citizens
deemed to have poorly integrated.
On Monday
Merz, whose CDU/CSU alliance won 28.5% of the vote, said: “We need to see that
we solve the problems in Germany together so that we step for step, deprive
this party of its breeding ground.” If that failed, he said, referring to the
next election, “we’ll have very different problems”.
Merz said
his own conservative party colleagues had warned him that the former east was
“only a few years ahead of you in the west” and that “if you do not solve the
problems, then you will have the same problem”.
With a
particular focus on migration, which was the main topic of the election
campaign, Merz doubled down on his view that “we need to retrieve control once
again over those who enter our country”. The CDU leader provoked controversy in
January by relying on AfD support to get a non-binding migration policy through
parliament.
His hardline
migration policies are diametrically opposed to those of the SPD, and the
parties – who together would have a small majority in the Bundestag – are
likely to engage in stormy negotiations as they try to thrash out a grand
coalition.
Many Germans
fear a re-run of the last GroKo, as they are known, led by Angela Merkel
between 2018 and 2021, which critics accused of a lack of ambition and failing
to tackle pressing challenges such as economic and bureaucratic reform, defence
spending increases and an infrastructure overhaul.
Sunday’s
election was bruising for all the parties in the incumbent government. The SPD,
Germany’s oldest political party, received its worst ever result, with 16% of
the vote share. Scholz, who will remain as chancellor until Merz has formed a
government, called the result “bitter”.
The Greens
garnered 11.6% of the vote, down three points from 2021. The market liberal FDP
failed to reach the 5% threshold needed to get into parliament, as did the
leftwing conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). The leftwing Linke
party garnered 8.8%.
Merz said he
hoped to form a coalition by Easter in late April, stressing the urgency of the
negotiations and saying: “The world is not waiting for us.”
In his press
conference, Merz also said he would ensure that the Israeli prime minister
would be able to visit Germany without being apprehended, after a warrant was
issued for his arrest by the international criminal court for alleged war
crimes committed in Gaza.
Merz called
it “an absurd idea” that Benjamin Netanyahu should not visit Germany and said
he had told Netanyahu as much by phone.
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