Less than a day after scrambling to get enough votes in parliament to secure his job, Merz visited France and Poland in a high profile start to his term when he will have the threat of the Ukraine war, transatlantic tensions and domestic worries over the far-right to tackle.
In Paris, Merz said that he and France's President Emmanuel Macron had "agreed a new start for Europe", though he gave few details.
The 69-year-old Christian Democrats head turned his attention to the European Union's military spending in Poland, a key ally of Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Speaking at a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Merz pointed to recent changes to Germany's constitutional debt rules to largely exempt defence spending.
"We could imagine something similar for the European fiscal pact or fiscal rules," he said.
- More bazookas -
The continent has been looking to rearm following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's changing stance on European security.
In April, the European Commission said it would relax strict rules limiting public debt in order to allow states to spend up to 1.5 percent of national output on defence for four years.
EU members are bound by spending rules obliging them to keep the public deficit below three percent of economic output and debt at 60 percent of GDP.
But the EU can suspend the rules in exceptional circumstances and crises, as it did during the coronavirus pandemic when states had to prop up their embattled economies.
Sixteen countries, including Germany, have said they want to make use of the exemption.
Merz and his Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners pushed the change to Germany's constitution through the parliament earlier this year, enabling a "bazooka" of borrowing to upgrade Germany's defence and infrastructure.
Merz also said it was important for the EU "to produce more" of its own military equipment and to harmonise weapons systems across member states.
"We must make sure the European members of NATO, and the whole European Union, are able to defend themselves on a long-term basis," he said.
Tusk in turn praised what he called a "new opening" for the countries' relations that could be "the most important in the history of German-Polish relations in more than 10 years."
Tusk said Europe's external frontiers had to be strengthened to defend internal travel. Merz's government, which has seen the far-right seize on fears over migration, controversially announced on Wednesday that border guards would be told to push back most asylum seekers.
Tusk said it was "in the interest" of Germany and Poland to maintain "free passage" between their countries and that more attention should be "concentrated on the protection of the external borders" of the European Union.
In a new sign of EU leaders' desire to strengthen their standing, the French and Polish leaders will on Friday sign a new friendship alliance that will include security cooperation.
France, Germany say to cooperate more closely on defence
Paris (AFP) May 7, 2025 -
French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Wednesday to ramp up security cooperation in the face of Russian threats, as the new German leader visited Paris on his first trip abroad.
Europe is seeking to bolster its defences amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and doubts over US security commitments to Europe under President Donald Trump, though Merz insisted that any peace deal in Ukraine required an American commitment.
"We will set up a French-German defence and security council to meet regularly to bring operational responses to our common strategic challenges,' Macron said at their joint press conference.
Merz, who became chancellor on Tuesday, is a committed European, transatlanticist and Ukraine supporter who has pledged to restore Germany's role on the world stage after half a year of paralysis.
"We will take joint measures to further enhance Europe's security and defence capabilities," Merz said, before heading to Poland later in the day.
Berlin, like other European capitals, has been watching nervously as Trump seeks to push Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin into a quick agreement on ending the war, now in its fourth year.
US-led mediation efforts have failed to stop the conflict, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month threatened to pull out of talks if there was not progress.
Merz said the conflict in Ukraine could not end without the involvement of the United States.
"We cannot end this war in Ukraine without a continued involvement of the United States of America, this is not something that Europeans can substitute for," he said.
- 'We need the Americans' -
He said any ceasefire and security guarantees for Ukraine would also require US engagement.
France and Britain have been spearheading discussions among a "coalition of the willing" of 30 countries on the potential deployment of troops to secure any ceasefire.
But, Merz said, "at the same time we are aware that we will continue to need the Americans".
"We want the Americans to remain onboard, and to meet their responsibilities within NATO and towards Ukraine," he said.
"President Trump has our full support when it comes to bringing about an end to the war," Merz added.
He said European countries were ready to participate in any future monitoring of a ceasefire "under the leadership, and with the participation of, the United States".
Merz also said he wanted to discuss nuclear "deterrence" on the European continent with France and Britain, Europe's only nuclear powers other than Russia.
"We will give our respective ministers the mandate to begin this discussion," Merz said, adding that any such arrangement would be "complementary to what we already have with our American partners within NATO".
Macron said that strengthening "the European pillar of NATO" did not weaken the alliance.
"It is perfectly natural that all issues should be discussed, including nuclear deterrence, given our history and our specific characteristics," he said.
- Putin 'finally serious?' -
Macron also said he doubted Putin would respect a three-day truce in Ukraine that he ordered to start at midnight Wednesday, and wondered if the Russian leader was "serious" about a durable peace.
"Beyond the three days promised, which will undoubtedly not be respected, like the previous ones, is the Russian president finally serious?" Macron said.
"Will he finally decide to keep his word, especially the promises he made in his discussions with the US administration? That is what matters to us."
Ukraine has dismissed the three-day ceasefire as a "game" designed to protect its World War II commemoration parade in Moscow rather than a genuine peace measure.
The Kremlin was forced Wednesday to say it was taking "all necessary measures" to ensure the safety of foreign leaders set to attend its flagship May 9 parade after a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks closed airports across the country, disrupting hundreds of flights.
Asked on Tuesday how Germany could seek to influence talks on a possible peace deal in the Ukraine war, Merz said there was a "proven format" of Berlin working with France and Britain.
Merz said he would "consult intensively" with France and Britain, adding that "if we can include the Poles, then it will be even better".
Boris Pistorius, party soldier in charge of Germany's defence
Berlin (AFP) May 6, 2025 -
Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius -- who has led the push to make the military "ready for war" so it doesn't have to fight one -- was the only cabinet member to survive the new government taking office.
Hailed as a straight-talking politician, the Social Democrat has earned the respect of troops and voters for his efforts to strengthen the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, and support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
That saved his seat at the cabinet table when conservative Friedrich Merz officially took over as chancellor Tuesday from Olaf Scholz of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
The SPD -- staying on as a junior partner to Merz's CDU/CSU alliance -- decided that Pistorius would remain in charge of Germany's defence ministry, a job he has held for over two years.
Pistorius, 65, now has at his disposal an unprecedented budget to make the armed forces battle-ready in the face of sabre-rattling from Moscow and an uncertain future for the transatlantic alliance.
The new government intends to borrow hundreds of billions of euros to upgrade the military after years of underinvestment in the post-Cold War era which has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump.
Pistorius took the job in January 2023, as Berlin stepped up arms shipments to Ukraine, making Germany the country's second biggest military backer after the United States.
In a job that has derailed many politicians before him, he quickly became Germany's most popular politician according to opinion polls, a position he has maintained ever since.
Under Pistorius, Berlin also decided to deploy a German brigade to Lithuania by 2027 to help strengthen NATO's eastern flank.
- 'Red general' -
Born in the northern city of Osnabrueck on March 14, 1960, Pistorius completed his own compulsory military service in the early 1980s.
He went on to study law and work as an attorney before entering politics in the 1990s.
He became mayor of his hometown and later interior minister of Lower Saxony state, where he gained a reputation for his work in renewing the police force and boosting it to combat extremism.
When Pistorius became defence minister, Der Spiegel news magazine nicknamed him the "red general" for the colour of the centre left Social Democrats party and his hard-charging style.
"Pistorius is considered impatient, occasionally comes across as brash and can sometimes barely conceal it when he is annoyed with others," public broadcaster NDR wrote of him.
As Scholz's unwieldy three-party government engaged in open bickering last year over fiscal and economic policy, Pistorius stayed above the fray.
After Scholz's government came crashing down in November, some voices within the SPD begged Pistorius to take the helm to try to turn around its dire poll ratings.
But Pistorius refused to make a move for the party crown and played the loyal soldier, backing Scholz.
As the SPD went down to its worst defeat in history, with around 16 percent of the vote, Pistorius is now the last man standing from the old ministerial lineup.
He has two daughters and was widowed in 2015 when his wife died of cancer. He remarried in December 2023 to academic Julia Schwanholz.
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