Germany updates: Chancellor Merz 'skeptical' of AfD ban

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz again criticized US Vice President JD Vance for his controversial remarks at the Munich Security Conference in February.

"That was overstepping boundaries. Even an American vice president has no right to say something like that in Germany," Merz told German public broadcaster ZDF on Thursday.

In February, Vance drew the ire of European leaders when he publicly scolded them in a controversial speech at the annual Munich forum, accusing them of restricting free speech, endangering democracy, excluding populist parties, and ignoring opposition to migration.

Merz spoke with Vance during the conference and is expected to meet him again during an upcoming visit to Washington to see US President Donald Trump.

German and UK Defense Ministers Boris Pistorius and John Healey on Thursday announced that their governments had joined forces in designing and manufacturing a new, long-range strike missile. The partnership is part of an effort to lessen dependence on the US — which has come to be seen as an unreliable partner under President Donald Trump.

Speaking alongside Pistorius in Berlin, Healey said the UK and Germany "will begin co-leading the development of a new European-developed deep precision strike capability with a range of 2,000 plus kilometers (1,250 miles)."

"The current threat situation makes it absolutely clear that we need to close all capability gaps," said Germany's Pistorius. "And we need to do that as quickly as possible," he added, noting that the program was already underway.

Pistorius said the weapon would have "deep precision strike" capability.

Pistorius and Healey also outlined numerous other joint projects, including bundled torpedo procurement and the establishment of a defense tech forum.

"European nations in NATO must do more and step up to strengthen European security," said Healey. "The best way to do that is for leading nations like Germany and the UK to do more together."

Germany and the UK are now leading the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA), with numerous countries having signed a letter of intent to join the effort aimed at developing arms capable of destroying military installations and infrastructure deep behind enemy lines.

In February, Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged "real independence" from the US in military matters, noting that the country's leadership seemed "indifferent" to Europe's fate.

DW takes a look at the state of small breweries in Germany under the country's ailing economy.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Thursday sidestepped questions about the specifics of increased military spending, including whether 3% of GDP should be committed to NATO spending, or, as US President Donald Trump now says — and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul recently publicly endorsed — 5% of GDP.

Speaking in Berlin, Pistorius said, "The percentage is not so important. What is important is that the NATO capability targets that are set are met quickly, comprehensively and on time." Pistorius added that talks on increasing targets to 3% or more were likely. 

Pistorius praised his work with Wadephul to date before commenting on the endorsement he gave of the Trump plan following talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Istanbul on Thursday.

He then added, "at the same time he knows as well as I do that the defense budget is laid out in section 14 [of the German federal budget], and that's my department."

Germany's Finance Ministry expects to take in about €81 billion ($90.5 billion) less in tax revenue between now and 2029 than had originally been projected last October, according to an internal report released on Thursday. 

The ministry's tax projection working group said local, state and federal agencies will have access to far less tax revenue than previously planned. 

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) called on political colleagues to prioritize and "consolidate" around the new coalition's most important goals, pointing out that, "only projects that can be financed will be undertaken" — and adding, "we won't be able to start on everything right away."

The finance minister emphasized the importance of "boosting income through increased economic growth" to compensate for lost tax revenue.

Klingbeil spoke of the new coalition's plans for making Germany more competitive through various tax incentives and other "investment boosters."    

Klingbeil is scheduled to present his budget for the remainder of this year to the Cabinet on June 25. He also hopes to present his 2026 budget at the same time. This year's budget will likely be voted on in September, the 2026 budget by the end of the year.

Germany's Federal Network Agency has published an "impulse paper" that it says could help foster public discussion over a migration from copper phone lines to fiberoptic cable. 

The Network Agency paper outlines what it calls "transparent" ways to regulate the complex nationwide shift from one system to another. The agency argues that this will lead to efficiency when the transformation begins to gain momentum.

Issues of network ownership will be key among the problems to be resolved. Deutsche Telekom, which owns most of the existing copper network, has been accused of dragging its feet to allow its hardwired physical advantage protect its market position for as long as possible.    

The Network Agency has invited interested parties to send input so as to help shape the conversation going forward. In its paper, the agency noted that only 47% of all German households and industrial facilities have access to fiberoptic cable hook-ups at this point.

The paper also made clear that the future of telecommunications is fiberoptic and not copper, which lacks the bandwidth and speed of glass. This also makes copper far less profitable.

While the European Commission has called for a phase out of copper by 2030, the Federal Network Agency called that goal "unrealistic" in light of the current pace of change.

Some 729 attempts to illegally enter Germany have been thwarted in the last seven days, a 45% increase on the previous week, according to the country's new interior minister.

"The new border checks are a signal that Germany's immigration policy has changed," said Alexander Dobrindt of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), visiting the town of Kiefersfelden on the German-Austrian border. "And they are working."

Dobrindt was accompanied by Bavarian Premier Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavarian sister party, who described the situation at Germany's borders as "fundamentally different" to that under the previous government.

"We're serious now," Söder said. "We have law and order again at the border."

Dobrindt added that the tightened border checks did not constitute "border closures" and insisted that "nobody is thinking about that." He said the stricter checks were a "challenging measure" for border police but reported "no disproportionate traffic jams" as a result.

Söder claimed that, as a result of the increased border checks, "less criminality and less illegality will be arriving in Germany in [the] future." But he insisted that those who "come to work" and have valid residency permits "all have the chance to stay."

One of Germany's most well-known Holocaust survivors was buried in Berlin on Thursday following a funeral service attended by senior politicians.

Margot Friedländer, who was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp by the Nazis in 1944, died last week at the age of 103.

Among the attendees at her funeral were President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, as well as former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz.

At the ceremony, Chairman of the Jewish Community in Berlin Gideon Joffe reminded mourners that the Nazis had murdered Friedländer's mother, father and brother before she herself was incarcerated.

"But despite this past, you became somebody who didn't want to hate, but remember. Who didn't want to implicate, but recount," he said, describing Friedländer as a person who "symbolized what makes a human being: warmth, closeness and compassion."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Berlin accepts in principle the demand from the United States that NATO member states increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

Speaking on the sidelines of an informal gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkey, Wadephul said: "The result is the 5% that President [Donald] Trump has called for, and we will follow him in this respect."

NATO members are currently committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on military expenditure, a target which around one third of the alliance still doesn't meet, including Portugal (1.55%), Italy (1.49%), Canada (1.37%), Belgium (1.3%) and Spain (1.28%).

Germany currently spends just over 2% of its GDP on defense and new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week that each additional percentage point would mean further annual expenditure of €45 billion ($50.5 billion).

Read more on what Wadephul and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on ramping up NATO defense spending here.

Germany's new finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, has called on the European Union (EU) to react to US tariffs in a "unified and determined" manner should trade talks with Washington collapse.

Klingbeil – who, as parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), is also Germany's vice-chancellor – said the German government was confident negotiations between the EU and the Trump administration "could lead to a good result."

But he also warned that the bloc was "prepared to act if this does not succeed."

US President Donald Trump levied 20% tariffs on EU goods at the start of April, only to reduce the rate to 10% until July 8 pending the outcome of talks. 25% tariffs on European steel and aluminum products, including cars, have remained in place.

Should US-EU negotiations not bear fruit, the EU has reportedly prepared tariffs on American goods worth up to one billion dollars.

Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has expressed doubts over the appropriateness of a suggested ban on the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in February's federal election.

"I'm always very skeptical of procedures to ban political parties," Merz told German broadsheet Die Zeit on Thursday.

"And I've always refrained from conducting such procedures from the center ground in parliament. That smells too much like getting rid of political opponents to me."

At the end of April, Germany's domestic intelligence agency (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV) classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor" – although it will initially refrain from using the term pending the outcome of a legal appeal lodged by the party.

Merz said that it must be "proven" that the AfD is working "aggressively and combatively against the liberal and democratic order" in Germany, a burden of proof which lies with the executive, the state, rather than with the legislature, the parliament.

In its decision, the BfV said the AfD's platform contained "distinctive ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding that devalues entire population groups in Germany and violates their human dignity." 

Although the AfD polls around 20%, Germany's major political parities like Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) refuse to form a coalition with the radical, right-wing party. 

A majority of Germans share the view that the AfD's agenda runs counter to democracy, the rule of law and human dignity. But how best to deal with the far-right party is becoming an issue that could further divide German society.

In Germany, the hurdles for banning a party are extremely high. A motion to ban a party can only be initiated by the Bundestag, the federal government, or the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.

In proceedings before the Constitutional Court, a majority of two-thirds of the highest German judges is required. Ultimately, politicians have no influence on the decision of the judiciary, as all they can do is submit the request.

Guten Tag and welcome to our coverage of political developments in Germany on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

Since officially taking office, Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely focussed on setting up his foreign policy agenda, visiting Paris, Warsaw and Kyiv with fellow European leaders and speaking to US President Donald Trump on the phone.

On Thursday, in an exclusive interview with German broadsheet Die Zeit, Merz turned his attention to domestic issues including a proposed ban on the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.