BERLIN: Germany\u2019s incoming conservative leader Friedrich Merz pledged a spirited defense of Ukraine and of democratic values Monday as he named his new cabinet, less than a week before he is set to take power in Europe\u2019s top economy.
\nEuropean unity is \u201cunder threat\u201d from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and the rise of the far right at home, said Merz as he appointed a strong supporter of Kyiv, foreign policy expert and ex-soldier Johann Wadephul, as his new foreign minister.
\nSpeaking at a CDU party meeting in Berlin that signed off on the coalition contract with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Merz said Germany was ready to \u201conce again assume leadership responsibility\u201d in the European Union.
\nMerz \u2014 who is set to take office on May 6, ending half a year of political paralysis in Berlin \u2014 said the more than three-year-old war in Ukraine \u201cis directed against the entire political order of the European continent.\u201d
\n\u201cThere must be no doubt where we stand: namely, without any ifs or buts, on the side of this attacked country and thus on the side of all people in Europe who are committed to democracy and the rule of law, who are committed to freedom and an open society.\u201d
\nPointing to the return of US President Donald Trump, but without naming him, Merz said that \u201cwe have come to realize that we can no longer be sure of the transatlantic relationship in the spirit of freedom and the rules-based order.\u201d
\nMerz\u2019s CDU\/CSU alliance has sealed a coalition deal with the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after winning a February 23 election in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took second place.
\nWadephul is expected to play a key role in a new national security council, together with the current and likely future defense minister, Boris Pistorius of the SPD, to push Berlin\u2019s interests in the EU and on the international stage.
\nA spending \u201cbazooka\u201d worth many hundreds of billions of euros was passed by the outgoing parliament to build up the armed forces as well as Germany\u2019s infrastructure and boost the economy, which has shrunk for the past two years in a row.
\n‘Trust in our democracy’
\nMerz acknowledged there had been little excitement so far greeting the coming change at the top, adding that \u201cthis is not the time for euphoria. The pillars we have relied on over the past years and decades are faltering around us.\u201d
\n\u201cTrust in our democracy is damaged like never before in our country\u2019s post-war history,\u201d he said.
\n\u201c(Europe) is under threat from outside by an imperialistic, authoritarian war to the east and also from frightened, insecure and even radicalized citizens within its borders.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are also directly threatened by this war and by Russia,\u201d he added, pointing to acts of sabotage and interference blamed on Russia, including \u201cthe systematic disinformation of our population.\u201d
\nGermany\u2019s election saw a surge in support for the far-right and Moscow-friendly AfD, which finished in second place with more than 20 percent of the vote.
\nMerz said his goal remained to once more make the AfD \u201ca marginal phenomenon,\u201d including by cracking down on irregular immigration and eliminating the \u201cpull factors that still exist in Germany.\u201d
\nBut he warned that unless the government meets the demands of most voters, Germany could end up in a situation where \u201cwe are perhaps at some point no longer able to govern.\u201d
\nMerz has appointed Alexander Dobrindt, 54, parliamentary leader of the Bavarian CSU, as the new interior minister, in charge of immigration and border control.
\nThe post of economy and energy minister will go to the CDU\u2019s Katherina Reiche, 51, who has recently been working as an executive in the energy sector.
\nKarsten Wildberger, chief executive of the group which owns German electronics retailers Saturn and Mediamarkt, will lead a new ministry for digitalization and modernization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN: Germany\u2019s incoming conservative leader Friedrich Merz pledged a spirited defense of Ukraine and of democratic values Monday as he named his new cabinet, less than a week before he is set to take power in Europe\u2019s top economy. European unity is \u201cunder threat\u201d from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and the rise of the far …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80316,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80302\/revisions\/80316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}