Trump-backing tech billionaire Elon Musk has thrown his weight behind the AfD, recently interviewing Weidel on his X social media platform. He has sparked outrage for saying Germany should move on from its guilt over its Nazi past. This week, he celebrated the parliamentary moves to tighten the country’s borders and Merz’s decision to use AfD … Read more
His comments come as Merkel, who led Germany between 2005 and 2021, re-enters the political fray. In a rare intervention, Merkel criticized Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz for breaking the party’s long-standing firewall against the AfD by allowing far-right votes to help pass an anti-immigration motion in the Bundestag. The nonbinding motion called … Read more
The last time Trump was elected, many in the U.S. and around the world took comfort in the idea that Europe would step into the breach. They declared then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel the true leader of the free world — a role immortalized in an iconic G7 photo where’s she’s flanked by the leaders of … Read more
Red lines Resuming the free-trade talks with Washington would be a red line for France and put Paris and Berlin at odds. Still, Merz’s more critical tone toward China, which contrasts with the fealty shown by Scholz and longtime CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, might bring Berlin closer to the position defended by Paris and the … Read more
Musk’s endorsements of Trump have prompted a major backlash in Germany, with mainstream political leaders arguing they amount to election interference. Given Musk’s ties to United States President-elect Donald Trump, one opponent suggested that interference may be coming from the incoming American administration. The German government must clarify “whether the repeated disrespect, defamation and interference … Read more
At the other end of Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. Ukrainians chalked up some successes in 2024, becoming a dominant force in the Black Sea despite the country’s tiny navy, and mounting a counteroffensive into Russia’s Kursk region in August. But they are ending this year on the back foot, having lost many of … Read more
POLITICO’s 2024 Backhanded Awards There has never been a more deserving set of “winners.” By EDDY WAX Illustration by Ellie Foreman-Peck for POLITICO The Ursula von der Leyen Award for Not Being Charles Michel: António Costa Charles Michel has left office with a unique legacy: He’s the only European Council president to have quit twice. … Read more
“If Putin attacks, we must be fit to wage war,” Pistorius said in the interview published on Saturday. The minister’s comments come amid a push for NATO members to increase their defense spending, with new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte saying alliance members need to spend “much more” on defense than the current target of 2 … Read more
Merkel has also called to explore a diplomatic solution to the war at some point, though the leadership in Ukraine says that Moscow cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. “It is not only in the interest of Ukraine, but also in our interest that Putin does not win this war,” Merkel told German … Read more
“He judged everything from the perspective of the property entrepreneur he had been before politics,” she wrote of Trump. “Each property could only be allocated once. If he didn’t get it, someone else did. That was also how he looked at the world.” “For him, all countries were in competition with each other, in which … Read more
