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By America-Today  February,25 2025

Friedrich Merz marked his conservative alliance’s victory in Germany’s

election by urging Europe to make itself more independent from the US – a

project that will be music to the ears of Emmanuel Macron but may turn on

whether Merz can build a Bundestag majority to lift the so-called debt brake

that slows increases in defence spending.

One possibility for the CDU/CSU alliance leader, who is on course to become

Germany’s next chancellor, is to claim that the country is in an emergency, to

try to force the change through the Bundestag before its dissolution.

The remarks by Merz, a lifelong Atlanticist, show how rapidly European

leaders are concluding that Donald Trump’s presidency requires the

continent to become more responsible for its own security.