BERLIN: Germany’s incoming conservative leader Friedrich Merz pledged a spirited defense of Ukraine and of democratic values Monday as he named his new cabinet, less than a week before he is set to take power in Europe’s top economy.
European unity is “under threat” from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the rise of the far right at home, said Merz as he appointed a strong supporter of Kyiv, foreign policy expert and ex-soldier Johann Wadephul, as his new foreign minister.
Speaking at a CDU party meeting in Berlin that signed off on the coalition contract with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Merz said Germany was ready to “once again assume leadership responsibility” in the European Union.
Merz — who is set to take office on May 6, ending half a year of political paralysis in Berlin — said the more than three-year-old war in Ukraine “is directed against the entire political order of the European continent.”
“There must be no doubt where we stand: namely, without any ifs or buts, on the side of this attacked country and thus on the side of all people in Europe who are committed to democracy and the rule of law, who are committed to freedom and an open society.”
Pointing to the return of US President Donald Trump, but without naming him, Merz said that “we have come to realize that we can no longer be sure of the transatlantic relationship in the spirit of freedom and the rules-based order.”
Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has sealed a coalition deal with the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after winning a February 23 election in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took second place.
Wadephul is expected to play a key role in a new national security council, together with the current and likely future defense minister, Boris Pistorius of the SPD, to push Berlin’s interests in the EU and on the international stage.
A spending “bazooka” worth many hundreds of billions of euros was passed by the outgoing parliament to build up the armed forces as well as Germany’s infrastructure and boost the economy, which has shrunk for the past two years in a row.
'Trust in our democracy'
Merz acknowledged there had been little excitement so far greeting the coming change at the top, adding that “this is not the time for euphoria. The pillars we have relied on over the past years and decades are faltering around us.”
“Trust in our democracy is damaged like never before in our country’s post-war history,” he said.
“(Europe) is under threat from outside by an imperialistic, authoritarian war to the east and also from frightened, insecure and even radicalized citizens within its borders.”
“We are also directly threatened by this war and by Russia,” he added, pointing to acts of sabotage and interference blamed on Russia, including “the systematic disinformation of our population.”
Germany’s election saw a surge in support for the far-right and Moscow-friendly AfD, which finished in second place with more than 20 percent of the vote.
Merz said his goal remained to once more make the AfD “a marginal phenomenon,” including by cracking down on irregular immigration and eliminating the “pull factors that still exist in Germany.”
But he warned that unless the government meets the demands of most voters, Germany could end up in a situation where “we are perhaps at some point no longer able to govern.”
Merz has appointed Alexander Dobrindt, 54, parliamentary leader of the Bavarian CSU, as the new interior minister, in charge of immigration and border control.
The post of economy and energy minister will go to the CDU’s Katherina Reiche, 51, who has recently been working as an executive in the energy sector.
Karsten Wildberger, chief executive of the group which owns German electronics retailers Saturn and Mediamarkt, will lead a new ministry for digitalization and modernization.
Germany’s next leader Merz vows defense of Ukraine and democracy
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Germany’s next leader Merz vows defense of Ukraine and democracy
- Merz said Germany was ready to 'once again assume leadership responsibility' in the European Union
- He has appointed Alexander Dobrindt, 54, as the new interior minister, in charge of immigration and border control
Russia slams Western peacekeeping plan for Ukraine
- “The new militarist declarations of the so-called Coalition of the Willing and the Kyiv regime together form a genuine ‘axis of war’,” Zakharova
- She called the plans drafted by Kyiv’s allies “dangerous” and “destructive“
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday slammed a plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine as “dangerous” and dubbed Kyiv and its allies an “axis of war,” dousing hopes the plan could be a step toward ending the almost four-year-war.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing the warring sides to strike a deal to halt the conflict, running shuttle diplomacy between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a bid to get an agreement across the line.
An initial 28-point plan which largely adhered to Moscow’s demands was criticized by Kyiv and Europe, and now Russia has slammed the attempts to beef-up protections for Ukraine should an elusive deal be reached.
Ukraine’s allies said they had agreed key security guarantees for Kyiv at a summit in Paris earlier this week, including a peacekeeping force.
But in its first comments since the summit, Moscow said the statements were far away from anything the Kremlin could accept to end its assault.
“The new militarist declarations of the so-called Coalition of the Willing and the Kyiv regime together form a genuine ‘axis of war’,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
She called the plans drafted by Kyiv’s allies “dangerous” and “destructive.”
The remarks come as Russian strikes plunged hundreds of thousands in Ukraine into darkness, leaving families without heat in below-freezing temperatures — attacks that Zelensky said showed Russia was still set on war.
- ‘Legitimate military targets’ -
European leaders and US envoys announced earlier this week that post-war guarantees for Ukraine would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force to be deployed when the fighting stops.
But Moscow has repeatedly warned that it would not accept any NATO members sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
“All such units and facilities will be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian Armed Forces,” Zakharova said Thursday, repeating a threat previously uttered by Putin.
Zelensky also said Thursday that a bilateral agreement between Kyiv and Washington for US security guarantees was “essentially ready for finalization at the highest level with the President of the United States” following talks between envoys in Paris this week.
Kyiv says legally-binding assurances that its allies would come to its defense are essential to convince Russia not to re-attack if a ceasefire is reached.
But specific details on the guarantees, the European force, and how it would engage have not been made public.
Zelensky said earlier this week he was yet to receive an “unequivocal” answer of what they would do if Russia does attack again after a deal.
Zelensky has also said that the most difficult questions in any settlement — territorial control of the eastern Donbas region and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — were still unresolved.
- Russian strikes cut heating -
Ukraine was meanwhile scrambling to restore heating and water to hundreds of thousands of households after a new barrage targeted energy facilities in its Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This is truly a national level emergency,” Borys Filatov, mayor of Dnipropetrovsk’s capital Dnipro, said on Telegram.
He announced power was “gradually returning to the hospitals” after the blackouts forced them to run on generators. The city authorities also extended school holidays for children.
About 600,000 households in the region remained cut off from power in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian energy company DTEK said.
In a post on social media, Zelensky said the attacks “clearly don’t indicate that Moscow is reconsidering its priorities.”
In addition to the unrelenting pummelling of Dnipropetrovsk, Russia pressed on with its ground assault on the region, claiming to have taken another village there.
It is not one of the five Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.
