US President Donald Trump, and a long list of state and regional candidates associated with his MAGA movement, faced serious repudiation in the US mid-term elections on November 3rd. Here’s what German leaders have said about the vote.
“Ganz langsam schwappt die blaue Welle nach Berlin.” (“The blue wave is slowly making its way to Berlin.”)
That’s how German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung put it, in a headline published Wednesday just after noon.
Between youth protests, tampered Halloween candy, widespread cyberattacks on grocery store freezers and more, there is no shortage of high-stakes domestic news to fill the front pages of Germany’s newspapers. And yet the dominant stories on Wednesday were all focused on the vote in the United States, following the mid-term elections that took place on Tuesday, November 3rd.
The vote – which saw Democrat leaders elected in states and districts that have previously voted strongly in favour of current US President Donald Trump and the Republican party – is seen as a direct repudiation of Trump and Republic policies.
“I wasn’t on the ballot,” Trump wrote on social media after election results became clear. But in the days and weeks leading up to Tuesday’s vote he had said exactly the opposite: “This is also a referendum about me. I want you to vote. Pretend I’m on the ballot.”
In Germany, top-level politicians are already considering what the US mid-term election results mean for foreign relations between the two countries, and what it means for political trajectories around the world in the months and years to come.
Here’s a look at how German politicians have reacted.
Following news about the election results, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul cautiously expressed hope for renewed progress in providing aid to Ukraine.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Bundestag session in Berlin, he said he was “somewhat confident that there will now be more talks in [US] Congress, including between both parties, about what can be done jointly to support Ukraine”.
He added that in Congress, there are staunch supporters of Ukraine among both Democrats and Republicans who clearly recognise that Russia’s war of aggression threatens security and freedom in Europe, as well as in the US. “Perhaps this is a new opportunity to take a new initiative,” Wadephul said.
Wadephul’s comments come shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Berlin and spoke about recently intensified strikes by Russia, even after Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a rare truce ahead of US-led negotiations set for next week.
Considering the wider political implications, Wadephul suggested the election outcome signified “both continuity and change.”
He said it was imperative, “in these times of the erosion of political norms and international rules, in a time of polarisation and populism,” to fight unwaveringly for the political centre.
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Beside the foreign minister, other German politicians quickly chimed-in with thoughts on what the shifting political balance in the US could mean for Germany.
“[Trump] is coming under domestic political pressure, but this could make it dangerous in foreign policy, as he wants to demonstrate even more, ‘I’m still here, I’m still an actor’,” said Armin Laschet, Christian Democrat (CDU) politician and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, to Welt TV.
Social Democrat (SPD) foreign policy expert Siemtje Möller expressed a similar view on ARD’s “Morgenmagazin”, saying she hoped that Trump would not become an “angry duck” who tries to compensate for his domestic weakness with foreign policy muscle-flexing.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also reportedly congratulated the US Democrats, describing their victory as “historic”.
Meanwhile Metin Hakverdi, who serves as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coordinator for transatlantic cooperation, told the German Press Agency that he expected the election results to have a significant impact on political relations between Germany and the US.
“America has chosen change,” he said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Chancellor Merz had not yet publicly commented on the election results himself.
During his time as Chancellor, Merz has made notable efforts to stay on Trump’s good side. He had presented Trump with personal gifts on two occasions – a birth certificate of his German grandfather and a personalised Germany team World Cup jersey.
But he has also voiced criticism of Trump, particularly around his decision to launch a war on Iran with Israel.
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With reporting by DPA.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
