Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz thinks the German government made a mistake in the situation surrounding the US presidential elections, betting on the election of the Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris.
In an interview with Stern magazine, the opposition party leader indicated that the German Foreign Ministry had unilaterally sided with Harris. “US President-elect Donald Trump has a good memory. The current German government will not enjoy the respect of the new [American] administration”, Mertz believes. “Scholz is now a lame duck in the international arena,”, he said.
The CDU leader noted that if he is elected chancellor, he intends to more actively protect Germany's interests in relations with the United States and to talk with Trump on equal terms. “We need to transform ourselves from a sleepy middle power back to a leading middle power,”, he said. “It should not be about one side only, but we should make arrangements that benefit both sides. Trump would call it a deal”, Mertz said.