WITHIN HOURSof his party winning national elections,Friedrich Merz, Germany’s presumptive next leader, dropped a bombshell. Donald Trump “does not care much about the fate of Europe”, he said. The priority was to “step by step…achieve independence from theUSA”. This was not some distant aim. He was unsure, he said, whetherNATOwould still exist “in its current form” in June, when leaders are due to meet in the Netherlands, “or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly”.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Very well—alone”
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