From Merz to the AfD, mapping German reactions in the Trump-Musk era

Friedrich Merz sent two messages to two different recipients on the occasion of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

• In a post on the X network, Merz puts himself on stage by writing a letter in English, where he congratulates the new American president: “Your electoral victory is truly remarkable. (…) I have devoted a large part of my professional career and my political life to strengthening the ties between our two countries. If the Germans give me a mandate for the chancellery, one of my priorities will be to work with you for a new chapter in our relationship” .
• But Merz also published yesterday a short video from his office in which he casually comments on the news of the day, addressing Germany and Europe: “There is no reason for us Germans to look towards Washington in fear: we, the Europeans, are strong, 450 million Europeans are more than Canada and America combined. If we stick together, there is every reason to have confidence. The new American government will challenge us, we can meet it if we are united. And above all if Germany actively contributes again to European politics. We share the same values: we want peace, freedom, economic success. (…) we must above all perceive our interests, then the Americans will take us seriously” .

Merz here indirectly criticizes Chancellor Scholz’s tendency to stir up fears in the German population, and seems to call for a revival at the European level – without yet specifying which areas he envisages for this integration.

As Joseph de Weck recalled in these pages, “from 2009 to 2019, Merz was president of Atlantik-Brücke, the most influential transatlantic forum in Germany. Archetype of the West German, Merz knows how to resist the lucrative promises of the East; like Schäuble, he opposed the construction of Nord Stream II and has long held a hawkish position towards Russia. »

For the current chancellor and SPD candidate, the interpretation of Trump’s inauguration is formulated in terms similar to the second comment of his Christian Democratic competitor, although in a more laconic style.

• Olaf Scholz said: “The United States is our closest ally and the goal of our policy is always a good transatlantic relationship. The Union with 27 Member States and more than 400 million inhabitants is a strong union” .

For the Grünen candidate and outgoing Minister of the Economy, Robert Habeck, Germany and Europe must “prepare for a standoff with the United States” specifying that Europe would be ready to impose customs barriers if the United States did so and that Germany had to invest again in its infrastructure.

As for Alice Weidel, the “Spitzenkandidat” of the far-right AfD party, supported in the campaign by Elon Musk, the emphasis is rather placed on the executive decrees immediately signed by Trump, which she links to his own slogans party xenophobes.

• She declared on Musk’s social network – “First day of Trump: decrees for global border protection, remigration of illegal or guilty immigrants, removal of ideological laws: ‘our country first’, quite simply. All this would be possible in Germany — you just have to want it” .

For Sahra Wagenknecht, whose new party the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance wants an arrangement with Vladimir Putin’s Russia and an exit from NATO, Germany must not allow itself to be extorted by Trump and must say no to the race for armaments and the stationing of new American weapons in Germany, the use of which would be at the mercy of an unpredictable president .