On the same day that the results of the North American elections were known, with the victory of Donald Trump, the German Chancellor fired the finance minister. The leader of the liberals, the FDP party, abandoned the “traffic light” coalition, precipitating a crisis in the German executive.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock assured this Tuesday that the will be maintained, despite the crisis in its government and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
Baerbock was part of the opening panel of the Berlin Forum this Tuesday, for the third consecutive year, which addresses current international issues. Referring to the two and those anticipated that Germany the chancellor assumed that she can still be optimistic about the future.
“I still believe that the glass is half full. We need, now more than ever, a strong Europe. Germany stands with Ukraine, regardless of the outcome of the elections in the United States, regardless of the outcome of future elections in Germany because these These are decisive times.”
“We must be even more focused, and have our objectives even clearer. Europe must play an even more important role in the security and stability of our continent, now more so. We are preparing for this moment, obviously we would like to see another result, but the world is not just made of what we want”, he continued.
According to The Washington Post, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling him . The two will have discussed the objective of peace on the European continent with the North American president expressing interest in subsequent talks to discuss resolving the war soon.
“My experience over the last few years tells me that this may not happen. I have also heard that in the next 24 or 48 hours peace talks will begin. I have heard that, but whether I believe that, I am not sure. But I reiterate , there can only be peace in Europe with the Europeans, especially with the Ukrainians sitting at the negotiating table”, he considered Baerbock.
“We know that the new American president and the Russian president like to talk more among themselves. We have to adapt to this new situation and be smart. But it is obvious that there will be no peace if the Europeans do not participate in the negotiations.”
In early 2022, Berlin announced the creation of a one hundred billion euro “special fund” (Sondervermögen) that would be used for investments in the German Armed Forces. For the first time since the early ’90s, Germany will spend 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense this year. A poll revealed that the majority of Germans want an increase in this percentage. A desire shared by Baerbock, from the Greens.
“I think it’s difficult to find a topic in Germany today that generates so much consensus. We need to invest more than 2% of GDP in security. At the moment we are at 2% because economically we don’t have the capacity for more, but we need to increase this amount. We have to invest more, closer to 3%, as Poland already does, for example.”
