Merz says US friendship since war ‘probably over’ for now

Friedrich Merz
Photo: presstv.co.uk

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the era of “unconditional” ties between the US and Europe built since World War II are over, at least for now, the latest pronouncement of a breakdown in relations under Donald Trump’s presidency, Bloomberg stresses.

“This era of unconditional transatlantic friendship is probably over for the foreseeable future,” Merz told party members in Berlin on Thursday. “On the other side of the Atlantic, we are seeing a change in political attitudes, a change in the assessment of the transatlantic alliance, which we might not have thought possible.”

Merz, giving a stump speech at his conservative party headquarters ahead of the Berlin state election, contrasted the current US relationship to past visits by American presidents to the German capital, citing famous speeches by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

His comments came the same day that he spoke on the phone with Trump, where the two “emphasized the special bond between Germans and Americans,” according to a German government spokesman. The pair also discussed US efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, as well as the ongoing trade friction in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea.

Trump lauded a shock victory by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany in a state election earlier this month, an event that’s shaken the country’s political establishment and raised calls for Merz to step aside.

Merz has a track record of provoking the Trump administration with his rhetoric. In April, he told a group of school students that US negotiators seeking a way out of the war with Iran were being “humiliated.” The US president responded with an announcement of the withdrawal of some 5,000 troops from the country.

The comments echo those made by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in May 2017, during Trump’s first term, told a rally that reliable relationships forged since World War II “are to some extent over.” The comments triggered global attention.

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