“Germany and the United States have a long and successful history of working together to promote prosperity and freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. We will continue to do so for the good of our fellow citizens,” made a point of recalling Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the social network X, congratulating Donald Trump in German then in English, Wednesday November 6 in the morning.
After Ukraine, Germany is undoubtedly the European country which has the most to lose with the victory of the New York billionaire in the American presidential election. Economically, militarily, strategically, the leading economic power in Europe depends on the United States more than any other European state. However, the prospect of a return of Donald Trump seemed to leave the country as if he had been unable to prepare for it.
Donald Trump's first term in the White House, marked by a clear deterioration in bilateral relations between the two countries, left an almost traumatic memory in Germany. In 2017, the leading European economic power constituted, with China and North Korea, one of the favorite targets of the tenant of the White House, who sometimes seemed to consider that his distant German origins gave him particular expertise but did not did not come to Germany as president.
In his meetings as in his speeches, he already criticized Germany for its defense spending, in his eyes insufficient, for its lack of commitment within NATO, but also for its energy choices making it too dependent on Russia, for its trade surplus vis-à-vis the United States, as well as for its migration policy, accusing Angela Merkel of having ” ruin “ his country by massively welcoming refugees from the Middle East at war in 2015-2016.
Addiction in the United States
Eight years later, the situation is hardly looking better for Berlin. Donald Trump has never shown any particular attachment to the transatlantic relationship on which Germany relies so much, and which it seems to have difficulty mourning, as recalled by the emotion, even melancholy, aroused by Joe Biden's visit to Berlin on October 18. Presented by the daily Tagesspiegel like a “ true defender of the transatlantic link bidding farewell to Germany”the person of Joe Biden has concentrated all the nostalgia of the country towards the relationship which links it to its historic partner.
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Source: Lemonde