Anche la Germania è gaullist ora. Ben fatto, Trump. – Merz sta gettando le basi per un grande affare con Macron mentre l’Alleanza degli Stati Uniti appassiona.

> #Even Germany Is Gaullist Now. Well Done, Trump.
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> **Merz is laying the groundwork for a grand bargain with Macron as the US alliance withers.**
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> February 26, 2025 at 5:00 AM GMT
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> *By Lionel Laurent*
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> *Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the future of money and the future of Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for Reuters and Forbes.*
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> After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, French President Francois Mitterrand reassured a cautious US that Paris’s ambitions for a more self-reliant European defense would take eons to succeed: The UK wasn’t keen, the Irish were neutral and the Germans after reunification were geographically “so big they no longer know what they’re supposed to be doing.”
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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.
> European “Independence”?
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> **^US ^personnel ^by ^country ^shows ^legacy ^of ^post-WW2 ^security**
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> https://i.imgur.com/8NdCRpA.png
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> **^Source: ^EUISS**
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> **^Note: ^Greenland ^not ^shown**
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> 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.
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> Breaking the taboo of Germany’s frugal attitude to spending and its NATO-first security policy will be hard, as will attempts to fix the sorry state of the country’s armed forces. Yet it will be a big signal to Paris that it’s time to think the unthinkable on topics such as investing in and sharing France’s nuclear deterrent. Whether through jointly issued bonds or a less hawkish attitude to budget deficits, Merz’s coalition could sow the seeds of a new grand bargain combining German financial firepower with French defense ambitions, according to the Jacques Delors Institute’s Yann Wernert. German cash; French nukes; American pressure.
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> **^Nuclear ^Numbers**
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> **^Estimates ^show ^US, ^Russia ^own ^88% ^of ^global ^nuclear ^warhead ^inventory**
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> https://i.imgur.com/DxL7kw0.png
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> **^Source: ^Federation ^of ^American ^Scientists**
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> **^Note: ^Estimated ^total ^nuclear ^warhead ^inventories, ^including ^stockpiled ^warheads ^for ^use ^by ^military ^forces, ^warheads ^held ^in ^reserve, ^and ^retired ^warheads ^in ^queue ^for ^dismantlement.**
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> What a potential change from Olaf Scholz’s outgoing coalition, which butted heads with a weakened Emmanuel Macron on issues like electric cars, energy, trade and Ukraine. Mario Draghi recently spoke for a lot of countries when he implored Germany (and others) to “do something” in the face of a combined security, competitiveness and technology shock – one fueling anti-immigration parties and seeing German firms go bust at a rate unseen since the financial crisis.
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> The shared struggle of Merz and Macron with a resurgent far right and a weak economy brings other ways to reset the sputtering Franco-German motor. Both are scrambling to fix Europe’s weak competitiveness, from rolling back a thicket of environmental red tape that France calls “hell” to deeper integration of continental stock markets that could unlock €10 trillion of European savings. Low-hanging fruit on spending and economic self-help in Germany would also be encouraging after two straight years of contraction, with Bloomberg Economics estimating 1% of gross domestic product in spending potential. As in the days of Mitterrand, there are plenty of policy papers outlining where and how to spend it.
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> Merz also offers the prospect of a wider reset with other key countries closer to the Russian border like Poland, which has undergone a transformation since 1989 into Europe’s biggest defense spender relative to GDP and one of its fastest-growing economies. The alignment of the “Weimar Triangle” countries — France, Germany, Poland — will help establish more unity in the face of “America First,” especially if expanded into new geometries to include the likes of the UK or Italy’s Trump-compatible leader Giorgia Meloni. The latter celebrated Merz’s victory by highlighting security, competitiveness and the fight against irregular migration — a reminder that the 1980s’ open-borders utopianism is gone.
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> Obviously, this is Europe, so suspicion and skepticism are never very far from German attempts to put itself back at the heart of the bloc. Angela Merkel became associated with imposing austerity during the euro crisis; Scholz, meanwhile, was accused of undermining European Union solidarity by spending up to €200 billion at home to cushion the impact of soaring energy prices. The fact that Merz’s center-right allies now lead the EU Commission, the EU Parliament’s biggest group and a large swathe of the Council won’t go unnoticed.
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> Still, there’s currently justified optimism that Europe is taking baby steps towards the “something” Draghi is desperate for. Let’s hope it doesn’t stumble.

Seems good to be self-sufficient in terms of security no?

Please Germany, show us that You are still a global superpower worthy of leadership. I don’t want my country to be sold out to Russians again.

The US has wanted a more defense minded Europe for decades. Why is this presented as bad news for the US

How bad do you have to fuck up to get germans to turn their back on the US and like weapons and nukes o_0

Trump was the best thing to happen to Europe in decades.

Maybe we should have a vote on reuniting to Francia