Even Germany is Gaullist now. Well done, Trump
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That aura of German indecision and inaction is starting to change almost 40 years on, thanks to a new incoming coalition in Berlin under center-right leader Friedrich Merz. His calls for deeper European integration in defense are getting more strident as US President Donald Trump threatens to throw his allies under the bus over Ukraine three years after Russia’s invasion. “America First” is doing what Vladimir Putin alone couldn’t: Helping lay the groundwork of a new Franco-German grand bargain similar to Mitterrand’s own, which effectively secured the single currency in return for German reunification.
While coalition negotiations have barely begun, Merz is doubling down on his call for for defense “independence” from the US — the kind of talk associated with French leaders stretching back to Charles de Gaulle. He’s opened discussions with his Social Democrat partners to approve as much as €200 billion ($210 billion) in special spending. Speed is of the essence at a time of domestic political constraints and of US diplomatic somersaults over Ukraine that go against its continental allies. Merz’s dramatic warning that it’s “five minutes to midnight” also keeps open the possibility he could declare a spending emergency, another route to busting constitutional debt limits.
Breaking the taboo of Germany’s frugal attitude to spending and its
