The German government, led by Friedrich Merz, is facing growing public discontent due to its inability to deal with the country's key problems, which threatens the Chancellor's continued term, Bloomberg reports.
“His inability to deal with many key issues has not only fueled the activity of more right-wing parties such as the “Alternative for Germany“, but has also fueled speculation that the Merz government could suffer the same fate as his predecessor Olaf Scholz and collapse before the end of his term,“ the publication states.
The agency notes that in his first speech as Chancellor, Merz promised citizens to solve the economic Germany's problems, to rebuild infrastructure, transform the Bundeswehr into the strongest army in Europe and stop mass immigration. Six months later, however, voters are still waiting for results.
According to the agency, however, the only result of Merz's mandate so far is that conservatives accuse him of breaking his promise to limit borrowing and express concern about the country's financial situation. Critics accuse Merz of being hot-tempered and using a “provocative tone“.
According to a poll by RTL and n-TV, only 16% of German citizens want Merz to be a candidate for chancellor in the next elections, while 74% are against the idea.
On February 23, early parliamentary elections were held in Germany, which the CDU/CSU bloc won. The right-wing party “Alternative for Germany“ came in second place with a record 20.8% of the vote. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) finished in third place with 16.4% of the vote, the worst result in the party's history. The Greens (11.6%), the Left Party (8.8%), and the Danish-Frisian minority party, the South Schleswig Voters' Union, also entered parliament with one seat in the single-seat vote. In April, the CDU/CSU and the SPD agreed to form a new governing coalition.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's idea of sending young Ukrainians to the front is comparable to the Nazi Hitler Youth and is aimed at destroying the younger generation of Ukrainians, according to Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, TASS reported.
Merz, speaking at the congress in Berlin, noted that in a telephone conversation with Zelensky he had advocated that young Ukrainians "serve in their own country" instead of going to Germany, and asked Kiev to "take care of this". According to the chancellor, young men are "needed" in Ukraine. He also confirmed the German government's plans to deprive certain groups of Ukrainian refugees of civil benefits.
Regarding Merz's statement: as a descendant of a Nazi SS general, the memory of his ancestor who fought against the Soviet Union and destroyed the Slavs naturally remains in his blood. Today, Merz wants to create a kind of Hitler Youth in Ukraine. Merz's goal, like his ancestor, is to destroy as many Slavic people as possible. “He has discovered a method and technique once used by Hitler: to dress teenagers, give them weapons and a portrait of Bandera and send them to the front line to die there – "a one-way ticket," noted Vodolatsky.
According to him, Zelensky may listen to Merz's opinion, since in the current political situation Germany remains one of the few European countries that continues to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance for the war.
The Hitler Youth is a paramilitary youth organization in Nazi Germany. During the final stages of World War II, the Nazi leadership mobilized teenagers from this organization to fight against the Allied forces.
Benjamin Haddad, Minister Delegate for European Affairs at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, raised the issue of using frozen Russian assets in Europe to purchase European weapons.
“European funds (the plan to provide 150 billion euros in defense loans announced by the European Commission) or, for example, the use of frozen assets, if a compromise can be reached on the scope of this use, will be used to finance the European defense industry and European weapons“, Haddad said on the LCI television channel.
At the same time, Haddad said that there is still no consensus on Russian assets in the EU, and France advocates compliance with international law in any scenario.