Germany updates: Merz says Berlin back with voice in Europe

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for the lifting of all tariffs between the United States and the European Union.

"I told [US President Donald Trump] that I don't think it's a good idea to escalate this customs dispute," Merz said in Brussels. "The best solution would be down to zero for everything and for everyone.

"My view is and remains that such a tariff dispute can only harm us all and ultimately benefits no one," Merz added during his first visit to Brussels as chancellor.

Merz spoke to Trump on the phone for the first time on Thursday evening, two days after taking office in Berlin.

He said Trump invited him to Washington during the phone call, and the German leader also extended an invitation to the president to come to Berlin.

As Germany's Left Party begins a party conference, co-leader Ines Schwerdtner told DW she expects the new government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz to take her party seriously in addressing the problems Germany faces.

"We're really strong in parliament as an opposition party, and we want the government not to be afraid of us, but to take us seriously when it comes to all social interests," she told DW. "In the coming political decisions, when you need a two-thirds majority again, [the government coalition] will need to talk to us and need to take us seriously because we're stronger than ever."

Watch the entire interview where Schwerdtner addresses migration policy, Germany's relationship with Israel and the Left Party's goals.

Prosecutors in the eastern German city of Dresden announced Friday that they have begun an investigation into whether far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Maximilian Krah accepted bribes from China as well whether he is guilty of money laundering.

The charges stem from Krah's time as a European parliamentarian. After numerous scandals in Brussels — investigations into charges of accepting Russian bribes during that time, for instance, are still underway — he was voted out of parliament and is now an AfD parliamentarian in Berlin.

Prosecutors have requested that his immunity against prosecution be lifted. They are currently seeking to determine "if there is sufficient cause to bring charges or whether the proceedings should be discontinued."

Krah has claimed that these latest accusations, like others prior, are "politically motivated." 

Despite Polish complaints over Germany's current migration and border policies, new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday, "In my talks in Warsaw, I did not detect any major irritation but rather a great deal of agreement."

Wadephul, speaking on the sidelines of Friday's EU foreign ministers' summit in Lviv, Ukraine, said: "We all have a migration problem in Europe. We must solve it together."

The new German foreign minister voiced support for Polish President Donald Tusk's calls for strengthened external borders for the bloc, especially in light of continued provocations from  Belarus. Wadephul said that he and his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, would travel to the Polish-Belarus border to assess the situation.

Speaking of Belarus intentionally bringing migrants to the border to be released into the EU, Wadephul said: "We must find joint answers to this. That is the focus of our policy."   

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he is more optimistic about the future of the NATO alliance than he was three months ago when he questioned its continued existence in light of the attitude of the US administration under President Donald Trump.

"What has changed is the acceptance of what we, as European NATO partners, are doing," Merz told a joint Brussels news conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

"And that is why I associate the NATO summit in June with more hope today than I did back in February — that we will succeed in developing a joint strategy with the Americans," he added, referring to a NATO meeting planned for next month in the Netherlands.

Merz also said he had no hopes of Ukraine joining NATO in the near future, as he visited Brussels for the first time since taking office.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv applied for membership to the European Union and urged allies in the NATO military alliance to issue an invitation for it to join.

While NATO agreed last year to admit Ukraine in the future without setting a date, the US administration under Donald Trump has since ruled out such a move. NATO allies must unanimously agree on admitting new members.

Merz said Ukraine would not join NATO until it had also joined the EU, something that most experts say won't happen until 2030 at the earliest.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has spoken by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three days after taking office, to discuss developments in the Gaza Strip. 

"The chancellor condemned in the strongest terms the brutal terrorist attack by [Palestinian Islamist organization] Hamas on October 7. He expressed his concern about the fate of the hostages and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

Merz expressed hope that negotiations for a ceasefire would soon begin, the spokesman added.

The chancellor, who heads Germany's new coalition government of conservatives and Social Democrats, also referred to upcoming visits to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations being established between Germany and Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will arrive in Berlin on Sunday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier set to join him on his return to Israel on Tuesday.

The countries only established diplomatic relations on May 12, 1965, two decades after the end of the Second World War.

Germany's new economy minister, Katherina Reiche, has stressed the need for rapid construction of additional gas-fired power plants to bolster the country's energy supply when renewable energy sources are unavailable.

"We need flexible gas-fired power plants that can supply electricity when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining. And we need them quickly," Reiche told the Ludwig Erhard Summit in Tegernsee, a Bavarian lake resort.

She emphasized the necessity to "quickly move to tender at least 20 gigawatts of gas-fired power plants to maintain energy security."

Reiche, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union, highlighted a recent power outage on the Iberian Peninsula, noting that it had underscored the critical role gas-fired power plants play in ensuring energy security.

Reiche argued that "long-term gas supply contracts" and a "reality check of the energy transition" are essential to make the plan work.

New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made clear that Berlin is back at the European top table, seeking to steer the bloc at a time of daunting challenges, as the new chancellor made his maiden visit to Brussels.

After back-to-back trips to neighbors in Paris and Warsaw, Merz's visit sought to turn the page on months of political turmoil in Germany that left Berlin struggling to act decisively on the EU stage.

"Germany needs to play a strong role, an active role, in the European Union, and the German government is going to do so," he told a news conference alongside EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

"In a way, I'm coming home to Brussels, coming home to Europe," said the 69-year-old German conservative leader who cut his teeth as an EU lawmaker three decades ago.

Merz, who has long been critical of his predecessor Olaf Scholz, has said he aims to end Germany's "speechlessness" on European policy, particularly since the collapse of his so-called traffic light coalition last November.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for member states to jointly tackle migration as she hosted new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose government is moving to turn back asylum-seekers at its borders.

"Migration is a common European challenge and it needs a common European solution," the EU Commissionpresident told a news conference alongside Merz.

Having been elected on a pledge to clamp down on migration, conservative Merz made one of his first official steps a unilateral move to reject undocumented migrants, including asylum-seekers at Germany's borders. That step prompted notable displeasure from some member states, foremost Poland.

Von der Leyen stressed that actions "have to be time-limited" and "closely coordinated" with the Commission and neighboring countries.

The German initiative was a central part of Merz’s strategy to reclaim momentum from the anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which placed second in February’s general election.

Merz said he had notified French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in advance about the "temporary" measures.

Addressing reporters in Brussels alongside von der Leyen, Merz sought to reassure his partners that "there is no German solo attempt here," and he promised to keep acting "in accordance with European law."

Police in Germany have shut down a major online cryptocurrency exchange platform, seizing some €34 million ($38 million) in assets. 

The Frankfurt Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Friday said it had seized and closed down the German server infrastructure of the crypto swapping service "eXch."

Police said the operators of the platform are suspected of commercial money laundering and of running a criminal online trading platform.

The assets seized were in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Dash, and the seizure is the third-largest haul of crypto assets in the BKA's history. 

The platform had been operational since 2014, allowing users to exchange cryptocurrencies without any measures being implemented against money laundering. Police pulled the plug on the servers in April.

Europe is backing President Donald Trump's proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, the EU is ready to ramp up sanctions if Moscow refuses to engage in serious peace talks, Germany’s new chancellor said Friday.

After a conversation with Trump on Thursday, Merz said he was "somewhat" confident that the US would now also increase pressure on Russia so that serious negotiations can begin after this weekend.

On his first trip to Brussels since taking office, Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasized continued Western support for Ukraine — and readiness to boost that support if needed.

"We call on Russia at last to set out on the path for real peace negotiations," Merz said. "If that doesn’t happen, we won't hesitate, together with our European partners and the US, to increase the sanctions pressure."

Meanwhile, Merz reaffirmed Germany’s opposition to issuing joint EU debt to fund defense efforts.

For the latest developments from Russia's war in Ukraine, follow DW's Friday blog.

The German bank Commerzbank has posted its best quarterly profit since 2011, just ahead of a key shareholder meeting as it tries to block a potential takeover by Italy’s UniCredit.

Net profit for Q1 jumped 12% to €834 million ($936 million), defying analyst expectations of a slight dip. 

Chief Executive Bettina Orlopp called it proof the bank can grow even in tough conditions.

Revenue rose nearly 12% to €3.1 billion, driven by stronger-than-expected interest and commission income. UniCredit, which has steadily built a stake in Commerzbank, is widely seen as eyeing a full takeover — an idea firmly resisted in Berlin.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is on the second stage of his introductory tour abroad, this time with a trip to Brussels for meetings with European Union and NATO chiefs.

Merz, who has long been critical of his predecessor Olaf Scholz, has said he aims to end Germany's "speechlessness" on European policy.

The new chancellor plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the three top EU representatives: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Council President Antonio Costa, and Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

Merz completed his first inaugural visits to Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday.

At the signing of the coalition agreement between the conservative CDU-CSU and the SPD, the CDU leader announced that he and his government would ensure that Germany's "voice is heard again in Europe and in the world."

"Large parts of Europe, and the European Union in particular, are waiting for us to once again make a powerful contribution to the success of the European project," Merz said.

As opposition leader, conservative Merz accused his center-left predecessor of passivity in European policy.

In close cooperation with neighboring France and Poland, he wants to strengthen European sovereignty and thus respond to the US' foreign policy shift under President Donald Trump.

Scholz's "traffic light" coalition came under repeated criticism for the time it took to position itself on important projects such as the reform of the European asylum system.

This came to a peak when the members of the coalition themselves — SPD, Greens and FDP — failed to take a unified position on the EU Supply Chain Act, eventually abstaining on the EU-level vote.

Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is completing the second part of his inaugural visit on Friday — after Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday, this time he will travel to Brussels.

There he is meeting EU Council President Antonio Costa, then EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and finally NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Key topics are expected to include the pursuit of greater competitiveness for German and European industry, as well as strengthened defense policy and aid to Ukraine.

This blog will keep you updated with all that's happening in Germany and its newly-elected government.