German opposition leader Merz urges united EU stance on Trump

DAVOS – German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, the front runner in polls to become the next chancellor, on Jan 21 urged a united European stance in talks with US President Donald Trump.

Mr Merz also said that, should he win the snap general election on Feb 23, he would not only seek strong ties with Germany’s traditional core European Union partner France but also with Poland and Italy, led by far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a day after Mr Trump’s inauguration, Mr Merz recalled congratulating him in a handwritten letter and said “we should be ready to meet as soon as possible”.

But he cautioned that he “would not like to see any European leader go to (Washington) DC without having before tried to coordinate what we are telling them from our European perspective”.

With questions on trade, security and other issues looming, he advised against EU member countries “popping up there and speaking different languages, everybody only speaking on his own behalf”.

Instead, Mr Merz argued the need “to negotiate with the American side from a position of strength”.

Mentioning relations with China as an example, he said: “Let’s work with him and let’s figure out where we are having approaches in common.”

Mr Merz is enjoying a strong poll lead over centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who addressed the Davos forum earlier – although, if he wins, Mr Merz may yet need Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party as a coalition ally.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union leader, a strong supporter of the EU and transatlantic ties, has accused Mr Scholz of neglecting international relations.

Mr Merz also said Germany needed to get Poland “at the table as fast as possible” and praised Ms Meloni of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, who has positioned herself as the closest mainstream European leader to Mr Trump.

“I don’t understand the reservations towards her,” Mr Merz said.

“I think she is very pro-European, she is very clear in her position towards Ukraine and Russia,” he added. “Why don’t we talk with her more often than we did in the past?”

Outlining other policy positions, Mr Merz said he would seek to rebuild the German economy by helping companies, lowering energy prices, studying a return to nuclear power and getting the unemployed off welfare benefits and back into the labour market.

A top priority would be reducing the “big problem” of irregular immigration, he said, adding that this would also help tackle the “challenges coming from the right-wing populists” of the Alternative for Germany, with whom he vowed to never cooperate.

On the Ukraine war, he pledged strong continued support for Kyiv, stressing that the war “will not come to an end from a position of weakness. It will only come to an end from a position of strength”. AFP