The next Germany Chancellor has warned that Europe can no longer count on the United States to defend it unconditionally, on the eve of an election in which the pro-Russian and anti-immigrant party of the country should mark the Best result in its history.
Friedrich Merz, head of the Christian Christian Christian Union in the center-right, who, according to polls, will exceed Sunday’s vote, expressed doubts on Friday that the United States under President Donald Trump would fully accept his obligations as NATO, the cornerstone of the Transatlantic Alliance.
When asked if he “bet everything” that the American president would respect by article five of NATO, Merz, Merz said: “We must be prepared for the fact that Donald Trump will no longer fully accept the promise of assistance under the NATO Treaty. “”
Call Europeans to “do everything possible to at least be able to defend it.” . . Continent alone “, the head of the center-right suggested that Germany has discussions with the United Kingdom and France, the two nuclear powers of Europe,” on the fact that nuclear sharing, or at least security Nuclear of the United Kingdom and France, could also apply to us ”.
Candid remarks highlight the deep concern in European capitals concerning Washington’s faulty commitment to continent’s security in a week when the United States has moved to cure links with Russia and blamed Ukraine for the Invasion of the Kremlin in 2022.
Friday, the Interior Ministry of Germany warned against a Russian disinformation operation to influence the electoral campaign with false videos spread over social networks in Hamburg and Leipzig.
Leipzig and Hamburg security agencies have identified several pseudo-media sites and social media accounts within the framework of the network, strengthening concerns about Russian interference in democratic processes.
Merz’s comments also intervene when opinion polls suggest that the extreme right alternative of the insurgents for the German party is ready to obtain a fifth of the votes, to double his score during the last competition.
Traditional German politicians were horrified last week when US vice-president JD Vance seemed to insinuate this, unless The political current of Europe has cooperated with far -right parties“There is nothing that America can do for you.”
Vance then met the AFD co-leader, Alice Weidel, but not Olaf Scholz, the Center-Gauche Chancellor of the country, at the Munich Security Conference.
The Green candidate Robert Habeck, the outgoing minister of the economy, represented the elections and the government where she will lead, as perhaps the last chance of Germany to retain the extreme right. “If we do not solve the problems over the next four years, right-wing populism will be unstoppable,” he said on Friday.
Friday, a Forsa survey put the CDU at 29%, AFD on 21% and the SCHOLZ SPD on 15% – heading for its worst defeat since 1887.
Merz’s task to form a government would be made more difficult by a strong AFD performance, with which he promised not to associate.
It would be even more a challenge if the small parts such as the Liberals, the DIE to the left of Linke and a new party led by the Sahra Wagenknecht on the left reached the 5% electoral threshold of Germany, more fracturing the Parliament.
In an indication of AFD’s growing confidence, Weidel posted a compilation on Friday of the high -level international that the party recently won. The video featured Vance, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the confidant of Trump, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Herbert Kickl, leader of the Farm Freedom Party of Austria.
On the other hand, the party, whose former leader rejected the Nazi period as a simple “piece of bird shit”, was previously avoided even by far -right politicians such as the Marine Le Pen de France.
The sharp increase in AFD, fueled by the growth of anxiety about immigration and the deep dissatisfaction of the Scholz government, would mark a strong swing to the right in the greatest economy in the euro zone, which fought with High energy prices and competition from cheaper Chinese manufacturers.
“Markets and electoral polls are deceptively calm about the elections,” said Tomasz Wieladek, European economist in chief of the T Rowe Price asset manager, invoking the risk of a blocking minority that would prevent the reform and potentially hit the ‘euro.
Friday, Merz, 69, who left politics for a decade after losing a power struggle against the Angela Merkel party rival, also stressed the extent of the economic challenge. “The most important bet on the future is that we bring together our forces to increase this economy,” said former Germany president of Blackrock.
Merz has also expressed his concern this week that he hopes that the United States “remains a democracy and does not slip into an authoritarian populist system. . . America may enter a longer period of instability and this populism, this autocratic behavior of heads of state, will continue ”.
Additional report by Ian Smith
