LUDOVIC MARIN ; POOL/EPA
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
At the Munich Security Conference, the chancellor harshly criticized US foreign policy. He started preparing his speech at Christmas.
The Munich Security Conference began and, “playing at home”, Friedrich Merz He did not spare his words at the opening of the event.
The German Chancellor stated that The world order, as it has existed for decades, “no longer exists”. This was followed by a recent and famous speech by the Prime Minister of Canada, .
He spoke of a “world in destruction”. And, therefore, countries like Germany will have to change their approach to security and self-defense, highlights the .
“They chose a grim motto for this conference, ‘under destruction,’ and that probably means that the international order based on rights and rules is being destroyed. But I fear we have to put it in even harsher terms: that order, however imperfect it may have been, even in its heyday, no longer exists,” he fired.
Merz analyzes the world today and considers that there are many democratic states that “desire a strong leadership in a globalized world in which democratic states, in particular, are approaching limits of their capacity for action.”
“O The return to power politics does not only originate from rivalry between great powers“, he warned.
Anti-Trump, “inconvenient truth”
And then launched a “scathing attack” on the US governmentA, as described by .
“America’s claim to leadership is being challenged, perhaps even lost.” Or even: “The United States does not have enough strength to advance alone.”
For Merz, relationship between the USA and Europe has lost its “self-evidence”. It’s an “inconvenient truth”, he admitted.
He commented that Germany and Europe need to learn to assert themselves in a world dominated by such power politics.
And, remembering the words of the vice president J.D. Vance At the 2025 Munich Security Conference (when he accused European democracies of condemning themselves to destruction with mass immigration from other cultures), the leader of the German Government was very clear: “A gap opened up between Europe and the United States. Vice President JD Vance said it openly a year ago, and he was right“.
Merz doesn’t agree with Vance. And he highlighted Europe’s values, even if they go against Donald Trump’s ideas – leaving multilateral organizations and climate defense.
“America’s MAGA culture wars are not ours. Freedom of expression here ends when the words spoken are directed against human dignity and our basic law. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade. We adhere to climate agreements and the World Health Organization because we are convinced that global challenges can only be resolved together,” he said openly.
Nor did he forget: since Donald Trump became US president again, Europe has had to double its support for the Ukrainians.
According to Handelsblatt, the chancellor spent weeks perfecting this speech: he started to gather ideas during Christmas. I clearly wanted to set the tone for discussions at the world’s most important security conference.
And he made a point of showing up on the first day of the event.
“It will not be enough to react in the most cunning way possible to the maneuvers and whims of the powerful. We are focused on ourselves”, he added.
