This is such a wild development.
Friedrich Merz, Chancellor of Germany, milque-toast waffler and master of the Old Magoo, is trying out for yet another role - DEFENDER OF EUROPE.
No one is quite sure what to make of this reincarnation unfolding on an international stage. The skeletal German leader, whose usual utterings are ignored or worse by the few European leaders who have any sense and functioning countries they run (this was Meloni in the Oval Office in August reacting to Merz lecturing Trump)...
🚨 OMG...the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni's reaction is *PRICELESS* as Germany Chancellor Merz is lecturing Trump that he needs to go to a ceasefire with Putin instead of a full peace deal.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2025
She just keeps rolling her eyes 🤣😭 the plan was NOT to do a ceasefire. Trump… pic.twitter.com/9fF72oB0U4
...has suddenly decided to become Friedrich the Great Organizer.
He's declared the Pax Americana between Europe and the US effectively dead, as the US 'ruthlessly pursues its own interests.'
WAAH
Pax Americana is alive and well under @realDonaldTrump
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) December 14, 2025
It is the EU that is sinking, not the United States Chancellor Merz. https://t.co/naERKpNZwn
And he's boldly marching out in front of other EU members as if Germany had decided they were the new leader of the pack.
Friedrich Merz puts Germany in an unfamiliar position: Out front
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is mounting an unusually assertive effort to project German leadership at the heart of the EU, positioning himself as the defender not only of Ukraine but, by his own account, of Europe as a whole.
This represents a stark shift in Germany’s approach to world affairs. Merz’s predecessors, Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel, were reluctant to put the country in such an outspoken lead role internationally or within the EU. Rather, Germany tended to hang back and avoid undue risk. Germans even coined a slang verb — “to Merkel,” or Merkeln — to connote dithering.
Merz has taken a far more active stance inside the EU — assuming a role more traditionally played by France’s now weakened President Emmanuel Macron. He has placed himself as Europe’s most visible advocate of a risk-laden EU plan to replenish Ukraine’s war chest with a €210 billion loan backed by Russian frozen assets. Earlier this month he visited Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, who has rejected the plan, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in an effort to convince the Belgian to drop his opposition.
I guess there has to be some small satisfaction in being able to elbow the insufferably sanctimonious, effete, and elfin Emmanuel Macron off the primetime stage. Gives one a tiny ego boost.
Merz is also making Berlin the centerpoint for many of the most important discussions surrounding Ukraine and the EU.
...In a reflection of his government’s new assertiveness, Merz has made Berlin a nexus of diplomacy over a potential peace deal. On Sunday and Monday he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. On Monday evening, many of Europe’s most powerful leaders converged over dinner in Berlin to discuss the outlines of a possible deal.
“Berlin is now at the center of very important diplomatic talks and decisions,” Zelenskyy said Monday. “These talks are always complex, never easy, but they were very productive.”
Analysts are also skeptical that this new version of Merz, besides EU issues, is going to have what it takes to break the impasse among members over guaranteeing Ukraine loans based on frozen Russian assets, no matter how he thinks he can lay down the law. And I mean, he is up against Meloni on this one.
Good luck, dude.
...However, the greater risk for Merz lies in whether his latest efforts succeed or fail. By depicting European leaders’ looming decisions on Russian assets this week as a make-or-break moment for the EU and for Ukraine, Merz may be setting himself up for embarrassment given Belgian and Italian opposition to the plan.
Thanks to his sudden and urgent enthusiasm for unconditional support for Ukraine, Merz's new tough guy mouth has gotten himself in a bit of a pickle during a question and answer period in the German parliament.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday pledged continued strong support for Ukraine in its war with Russia ahead of the upcoming EU summit in Brussels.
“The task now is to present the joint position of Europe, Ukraine, and the US to Russia and bring this war to an end. I will leave no doubt that it is the firm intention of my government to support Ukraine for as long as necessary,” said Merz during a question-and-answer session in the German parliament in Berlin.
It's precisely what 'supporting Ukraine' entails that people have issues with, once Merz clarified what he intended.
...Merz reiterated that Ukraine needs to be able to defend itself against Russian attacks and have “reliable security guarantees” as part of a likely future peace agreement.
Security guarantees means...what exactly?
This is what got everyone's attention.
Germany open to sending soldiers to Ukraine for European-led multinational force
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine as part of a European-led multinational force to secure a peace agreement.
In an interview with public broadcaster ZDF, Merz evaded the question of whether German Armed Forces would participate in such a mission.
The blowback began immediately.
...During parliamentary questions on Tuesday, Mr Merz was less clear about Germany’s contribution to any security guarantees for Ukraine. He said he was primarily concerned with ending the war in Ukraine. And would he be prepared to send troops to Ukraine, a member of the Bundestag MP wanted to know, yes or no?
“There are questions in this world that are not as easy as you might think to answer and this question is one of them,” said Mr Merz to a query from the pro-Russian far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). “We will talk about security guarantees for Ukraine after a ceasefire that must be agreed with Russia.“
In a lively Bundestag exchange, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla accused the chancellor of “ramping up the escalation spiral in Europe” and “talking of security for Ukraine when you mean rearmament”.
...The Monday agreement – and Mr Merz’s remarks on German troops – have caused a certain amount of confusion in Berlin’s coalition government. Defence minister Boris Pistorius admitted he was “not directly involved” in the troop proposals.
It's probably a good thing German Defense Minister Oscar Pistorius was not consulted on any preliminary numbers for Ukrainian troop deployment, because the man has been saying for the three years I've had this job that he doesn't have any troops - not even enough to defend the home turf, let alone send off willy-nilly to someone else's war.
In fact, most Germans of service age have no desire to serve in any part of the Bundeswehr. And have made that quite clear by not volunteering, which has left their military numbers so drained. Pistorius was talking about proscription, aka a draft, two years ago.
a young zoomer German does not want to "fight" in a "war" for a country that sees them as a genetic target, they want to play Minecraft and use snus. I don't blame them https://t.co/Aoly7kIvzC
— Andrew Quackson (@AndrewQuackson) December 16, 2025
Another problem is, quite frankly, the overwhelming number of foreigners. German young people are going to take it badly if they wind up drafted while Achmed gets to remain in Berlin or Frankfurt doing what comes naturally, while Hans and Freunde face the possibility of dying in a forest in Ukraine.
The new Merz is hardly the inspirational leader to motivate them to do so.
I'm so glad Euros want to take more responsibility for their own defense.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) December 16, 2025
But this dude is smoking some bad German weed if he thinks it's an "advantage" to lack a strategic logistics infrastructure and global intelligence/surveillance capabilities.
Moreover, concepts like… https://t.co/goXrO0v3Ns
...Moreover, concepts like "Bürger in Uniform" (quasi-unionization of German military forces) leaves it unlikely that the willingness to die for one's country is a strong ethic of the Bundeswehr.
But hey, I'm not complaining. About time they took the load off of the American taxpayer and its armed forces.
Don't think that thought hasn't occurred to lots of people.
Good luck with that. Are you going to fill those ranks with the European-hating invasion force you filled your country with? Or you gonna leave that invasion force roaming the streets of Hamburg as the Germans leave home to let the "objectors" take over? https://t.co/sLP7ZM3u4h
— Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 (@marcorandazza) December 16, 2025
It certainly doesn't help Merz's case that the European-hating, knife and Mercedes-wielding invasion force just keeps getting bigger by the day. If illegals don't sneak in on their own, the German government buys them the plane ticket, for all that Merz swears he's doing something to change it.
Another 160 Afghans flown in by Merz
— The European Conservative (@EuroConOfficial) December 17, 2025
Germany has again flown in Afghan migrants from Pakistan, with a charter flight bringing 160 individuals to Berlin on Tuesday, December 16th.
Many of those transported had been waiting months to leave Pakistan. The government intends to… pic.twitter.com/UsgXKlR75q
And how does Germany pay for this new muscular posture when they are being openly ridiculed on a world stage by tech and industry leaders as a failed state, thanks to those very policies?
In an interview with Handelsblatt conducted in New York, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp unleashed a blistering assessment of Germany, in particular its flailing technology and destructive migration policies.
He reserved his harshest words for its migration policies, telling the magazine on December 13 Berlin’s open-border stance was the country’s “dumbest decision ever made in the post-war period”.
...“No one talks about Germany anymore, neither in the Middle East nor in Asia nor in America. For 100 years, the world admired German technology but now there is nothing left of that. The country is falling behind technologically,” he said.
NO ONE TALKS ABOUT GERMANY ANYMORE
Wonder why?
Der wirtschaftliche Niedergang Deutschlands setzt sich ungebremst fort❗️
— Georg Pazderski (@Georg_Pazderski) December 16, 2025
Zum 1. Mal in seiner 88-jährigen Geschichte muss VW ein Werk in Deutschland schließen. Die Gläserne Fabrik in Dresden stoppt ihre Produktion.
Und was tut MERZ? Er kaspert weiter in der Weltgeschichte rum. pic.twitter.com/kdeRzDONRM
...Germany's economic decline continues unabated.
For the 1st time in its 88-year history, VW has to close a plant in Germany. The Transparent Factory in Dresden is stopping its production.
And what does MERZ do? He keeps clowning around in world history.
But it's no wonder why Merz is living a Walter Mitty tough guy life on the world stage, trying to act like everything's fine and Germany is still something.
It's too ugly at home for him to handle, not that he could anyway.
