Category Archives: Friedrich Merz

Pension changes row threatens Germany’s coalition government

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Youth wing of conservatives say younger people will be left carrying can for older generation

A row over pension changes is threatening the future of the German coalition government, with a youth wing of the conservatives of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, gaining support for an attempt to block legislation which they argue will leave younger Germans carrying the can for the older generation.

An 18-strong group of young MPs, the Junge Union, has been accused of holding Merz’s coalition government to ransom over its demands to revise proposed pension changes, which would guarantee pension increases for the next six years.

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Germany draws up law to allow police to shoot down drones

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Cabinet agrees draft legislation after spate of sightings, including over Munich airport

German police will be allowed to shoot down drones under new legislation aimed at increasing safety after a spate of sightings across Europe.

Rogue drones, which have not been attributed to a specific owner, have disrupted air traffic across the continent in recent weeks. Some have been spotted over hospitals, canals, armaments factories and other sites of critical infrastructure in Germany.

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Far-right AfD’s vote triples in elections in German bellwether state

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Party takes 16.5% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, behind governing CDU and Social Democrats

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has more than tripled its support in local elections in the country’s most populous state, a poll seen as Friedrich Merz’s first significant electoral test since he took office as chancellor four months ago.

According to exit poll results from North Rhine-Westphalia, Merz’s Christian Democrats won with 34% – about the equivalent of its historically worst result in the same poll in 2020 – while the AfD secured 16.5%.

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Buchenwald can refuse entry to people wearing Palestinian keffiyeh, German court rules

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Court in Thuringia rejected woman’s request to enter concentration camp memorial while wearing the scarf

A German court has ruled that a Nazi concentration camp memorial has the right to refuse entry to those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

The higher administrative court in the eastern state of Thuringia on Wednesday rejected a request from a woman to be allowed entry to the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial while wearing a keffiyeh.

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Zelenskyy’s European ‘bodyguards’: which leaders joined Trump talks in Washington?

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Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House

European leaders gathered in Washington on Monday for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, in a show of support for the Ukrainian president. Their presence came amid expectations that Trump would try to bully Zelenskyy into accepting a pro-Russia “peace plan” that would include Kyiv handing territory to Moscow. The Europeans have been described as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards”, with memories fresh of the mauling he received in February during his last Oval Office visit. So, who are they?

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European leaders including Starmer to join Zelenskyy in Washington for meeting with Trump

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Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and others will aim to push back against ceding of Ukraine territory in ‘peace plan’

European leaders including Britain’s Keir Starmer will join Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a White House meeting on Monday with Donald Trump, in an extraordinary joint effort to push back on a US-backed plan that would allow Russia to take further Ukrainian territory.

As well as the UK prime minister, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Italy’s PM, Giorgia Meloni, and the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, will all accompany Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

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Europe’s leaders raise pressure on Trump to involve Ukraine in Putin talks

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Move comes as Germany warns White House against any deal hatched ‘over heads of Europeans and Ukrainians’

Europe’s leaders have raised the pressure on Donald Trump to involve Ukraine in a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, as Germany warned the White House against any deal hatched “over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians”.

Speaking before a bilateral meeting expected to take place between the US and Russian leaders on Friday in Alaska, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he hoped and assumed that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would also be involved.

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Pension age debate threatens to splinter Germany’s fragile coalition

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Merz walks fine line as ‘lazy Germans’ debate sparks protest and economy minister calls to raise retirement age to 70

The fact that ageing Germany’s generous pension system is unsustainable is political Berlin’s worst-kept secret, but a controversial call to save it by hiking the retirement age to 70 has sparked howls of protest and threatened to destabilise the fractious government.

The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population since taking office in May, preferring instead to announce sweeteners such as tax breaks for older Germans to continue working past the retirement age.

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Starmer says plan to airdrop Gaza aid and evacuate ill children will go ahead

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Leaders of UK, France and Germany call for lifting of aid restrictions and immediate ceasefire after holding talks

Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children who need medical assistance in an effort to relieve what Downing Street called an appalling situation.

Speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Saturday morning, the prime minister outlined the UK’s intentions to work with Jordan to carry out the plans.

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‘It’s time for us to be louder’: Germany’s Pride parades face up to rise in attacks

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Christopher Street Day event organisers urge vigilance amid increase in abuse from rightwing extremists

The organisers of the Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin have urged participants to be vigilant amid a rise in attacks on LGBTQ+ events across Germany.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of the German capital this weekend for a loud and colourful celebration held in memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, Christopher Street being the location of the Stonewall Inn. But behind the party atmosphere there is a more sombre mood than usual as LGBTQ+ organisations warn that attacks have become more frequent.

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Trump scorns Merkel legacy during new German chancellor’s White House visit

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Friedrich Merz struggles to get word in as US president focuses on record of former German leader who left office in 2021

Donald Trump has heaped criticism on the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for opening up her country to refugees, telling her successor: “I told her it shouldn’t have happened.”

During an appearance with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Thursday, Trump was asked about the sweeping travel restrictions on 19 countries that he announced the previous day.

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Trump travel ban to ‘sow division and vilify communities’ – US politics live

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President brings in ban for visitors from 12 countries and restricts travel from a further seven

Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging top aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline”.

The investigation will build on a Republican-led campaign already under way to discredit the former president and overturn some of his executive actions, including pardons and federal rules issued towards the end of his term in office.

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Germany and Ukraine reach deal for long-range weapons production

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Berlin agrees to help finance construction in Ukraine of weapons that can strike targets inside Russia

Ukraine and Germany have agreed to future military cooperation in which Berlin will help finance long-range weapons production on Ukrainian soil.

The deal came as Zelenskyy warned that Russia had amassed 50,000 troops in the Sumy region bordering Russia, where Vladimir Putin has declared an intention to establish a buffer zone.

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Zelenskyy bound for Berlin with Merz boxed in by German coalition

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The German chancellor’s desire to lift restrictions on longer range weapons for Ukraine has been frustrated by his SPD and Social Democrat partners

The German chancellor’s drive to keep a campaign pledge of more robust backing for Ukraine is running into blocks within his own government as he prepares to welcome Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Berlin.

Friedrich Merz made a full-throated declaration on Monday, hours before Zelenskyy’s one-day visit was announced, that Germany was for the first time lifting previous range restrictions on weapons supplied to Kyiv, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters.

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UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers

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Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system

The UK must impose sanctions on the Israeli government and its ministers and also consider suspending it from the UN to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations”, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges, including former supreme court justices, have said.

In a letter to the prime minister, they welcome Keir Starmer’s joint statement last week with the leaders of France and Canada warning that they were prepared to take “concrete actions” against Israel. But they urge him to act without delay as “urgent and decisive action is required to avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza”.

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Germany and Ukraine’s other allies scrap range limits on arms sent to Kyiv

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Removal of restrictions, which is backed by UK, France and US, improves Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia

The German chancellor has said that Germany, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters, will remove range restrictions on weapons delivered to Kyiv for the first time, to enable it to defend itself against Russia.

Friedrich Merz said Germany, Britain, France and the US had lifted the restrictions to enable Ukraine to be better able to hit military targets on Russian territory.

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German troops start first permanent foreign deployment since second world war

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Heavy combat unit of 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian staff inaugurated in Lithuania on Nato’s eastern flank

The German chancellor has visited Lithuania to mark Berlin’s first permanent foreign troop deployment since the second world war, as he called on allies to dramatically expand their efforts to bolster European defences against a hostile Russia.

As a crowd waved Lithuanian, German and Ukrainian flags, Friedrich Merz and his defence minister, Boris Pistorius, attended a ceremony launching the official formation of an armoured brigade aimed at protecting Nato’s eastern flank.

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Vladimir Putin rejects ceasefire ultimatum proposed by European leaders

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Leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told Russian president to accept unconditional 30-day ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has rejected an ultimatum by European leaders to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face increased sanctions, but has proposed holding direct negotiations with Kyiv this week.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland told the Russian president either to sign up to an unconditional ceasefire by Monday or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine.

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Leaders of UK, France, Germany and Poland to visit Ukraine in joint show of support

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Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk to make symbolic visit day after Putin parade

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland are due in Kyiv on Saturday for a symbolic visit to Ukraine, a day after Vladimir Putin hosted a set-piece military parade on Red Square. The visit comes as the US warned of intelligence about a big impending air attack on Ukraine.

Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk are expected to arrive in Kyiv early on Saturday and will meet the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a show of support for Ukraine, Downing Street said in a statement issued late on Friday.

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Scholz to hand over power in Germany to sound of feminist anthem Respect

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Song made famous by Aretha Franklin is on military band’s set list for handover of chancellery to Friedrich Merz

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is to be played out of office by a military band who will perform tunes chosen by him that are intended to sum up his mood and political life.

Scholz will bow out to the Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach and an Otis Redding hit made famous by Aretha Franklin.

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