Friedrich Merz is set to become Germany's new chancellor (Image: Getty)
NATO could soon be finished “in its current form”, with Europe taking care of its own defence independently from America, Germany’s likely new leader has warned.
Friedrich Merz, who is set to become the new German chancellor, warned that Europe could no longer rely on the US following Donald Trump’s appeasement of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
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A new European defence pact would be likely to involve the UK even though Britain has left the EU.
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Mr Merz, whose party won more votes than any other in Germany’s weekend elections, warned that Mr Trump's government "does not care much about the fate of Europe".
The German leader added: “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”
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The 2025 NATO Summit is set to be held in The Hague, the Netherlands, from 24-26 June this year. But Mr Merz said he did not know whether we “would still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly” by that time.
And he said Europe was under “massive pressure from two sides”, placing Mr Trump’s US in the same camp as Russia.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is heading to Washington on Thursday, following French president Emmanuel Macron's visit on Monday.
European leaders have been shocked by Mr Trump’s assertion, which the president later backtracked on, that Ukraine started the war after Russia launched an unprovoked invasion three years ago.
Donald Trump’s claims about the war in Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky fact-checked
Claim: "Ukraine should have never started the war"
Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday, February 19, that President Volodymyr Zelensky had three years to end the war in Eastern Europe, and seemingly blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict.
His suggestion, however, is false. Russia launched an unprovoked invasion against Ukraine in February 2022 with the stated aim of "demilitarising and denazifying" Zelensky's government and preventing it from joining NATO. Zelensky repeatedly offered to meet Putin before the conflict broke out, and Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held talks in the initial weeks after the invasion. However, Russia's demands - including a partial demilitarisation of Ukraine - were deemed unreasonable.
Claim: "Volodymyr Zelensky's low approval rate"
Donald Trump has claimed that the Ukrainian President has an approval rating in his country of just 4%.
This isn't true. A telephone survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in February found that around 57% of Ukrainians said they trusted their leader, up from 52% in December. While it signals a drop in popularity from 77% in late 2023, it is nowhere near as drastic as suggested by Mr Trump.
Claim: "Volodymyr Zelensky is a 'dictator' because he didn't call for an election"
Donald Trump has suggested that Ukraine's failure to hold a presidential election since 2019 means Volodymyr Zelensky is a "dictator".
This isn't true. Zelensky has had more than the standard five years in power, but only because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia's invasion in 2022, meaning all elections are suspended. The Ukrainian President has said he will hold an election when the war is over, and experts have said holding one before would be nearly impossible. Moreover, parties in Ukraine have agreed on not holding a vote until the illegal invasion continues.
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Mr Trump has echoed Russian propaganda by claiming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was a dictator and suggested he should stand down. However, Mr Trump has failed to criticise Putin.
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The US has begun talks with Russia designed to end the war, but these excluded Ukraine and European countries. There are fears that the US aims to pressure Ukraine into giving up territory to Russia, a move which critics say would encourage Putin to commit further acts of aggression in the future.
Mr Merz, 69, is expected form a coalition with the centre-Left Social Democrats of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz. He has repeatedly pledged not to work with the far-Right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, despite its second-place finish.
He put toughening Germany’s immigration laws at the forefront of the election campaign after a migrant killed two people in a knife attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last month.