Merz calls for European departure towards its own defense strength without US support
- Christian Böhm
FOCUS online editor Christian Böhm
Friedrich Merz warns in stark terms of threats to liberal society and peace in Europe. The Chancellor relies on European strength and calls for more to be done for Europe's own security – independent of the United States.
At the Banking Conference of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken (Cooperative Banks) in Berlin , Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) reiterated the urgent need to massively increase defense spending. He said the days when Germany was a free rider on American security policy are over. "We Europeans must and will do much more for our own security."
He referred to the NATO decision to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP – "3.5 percent for purely military spending and another 1.5 percent for the necessary infrastructure." Merz emphasized: "A few years ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be saying something like this from this position, but the international situation simply requires it."
With regard to the war in Ukraine, Merz warned: “This is not just a war against the territorial integrity of one of the largest countries in Europe, it is an attack on our freedom, on our political order.”
He assured: “We leave no doubt that we are firmly determined to defend our freedom, peace, our open society, our liberal society against all enemies, external and internal.”
Merz also acknowledged doubts about "whether, for example, we will pursue common interests with the United States of America in the long term." Nevertheless, the Chancellor promised: "I will do everything to keep the United States of America on our side. But we must also prepare for the fact that America's commitment to Europe and in Europe will at least diminish."
Therefore, it is time to “grow up and show our own strengths” – both domestically and internationally, as well as economically.
He also made it clear that greater security requires effort and personal responsibility: "In economic and social policy, this means that it's not enough to simply keep calling for more government, for more subsidies here, or more social benefits there. In the coming years, the focus must again be on how we generate more prosperity in our country through our own efforts and our own efforts."
FOCUS
