Germany's chancellor frontrunner Merz says US could slide

21/2/2025 6:25

Germany's conservative leader

Friedrich Merz said on Thursday the U.S. was at risk of sliding

into longer-term authoritarian instability, casting doubt on

Washington's presence for Germany’s 70th NATO membership

anniversary in May.



The outgoing government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and likely

successor Merz have largely avoided direct public criticism of

President Donald Trump's month-old administration. But senior

U.S. officials' remarks on NATO and free speech in Europe over

the past week have been condemned by Berlin.



Merz is candidate to be chancellor for the two allied

conservative parties (CDU/CSU) that are leading polls ahead of a

snap federal election on Sunday.



"I hope that it (the U.S.) remains a democracy and does not

slide into an authoritarian populist system," Merz said at a

campaign event in Darmstadt.



He said that if the U.S. remained a democracy, it would need

partners as only autocratic systems operated alone.



"But it may be that America will enter a longer period of

instability and that this populism, this autocratic behaviour of

the heads of state, will continue for a longer period of time,"

he said, calling for Germany and Europe to step up to become

able to defend themselves.



Merz said he was not certain it would be possible to

celebrate Germany's 70 years of NATO membership as the political

order it had been used to was crumbling.



"Will the Americans still be there? Eight weeks ago I would

not have dared to ask this question, but today we have to give

an answer to it," he said.