Berlin is expressing doubt about the European Union’s ability to withstand the rise of nationalist parties and the pressure from the Trump administration. This unprecedented skepticism in Germany has raised fears of lasting weakening, or even the gradual marginalization, of Europe as it exists today.
Is this “Germany” you are talking about in the room with us right now? Anti-EU sentiments are being amplified by right-wing populists. That’s all there is to know. There is no anti-EU sentiment among the democratic parties. Even right-leaning CDU party members know this would weaken Germany’s position in the world. Germany is an export-heavy economy and their military force is a joke (by design). Losing EU trade benefits and weakening ties to the EU allies would be extremely unwise.
Litterly. Even Merz is pro EU, may he be a scumbag, he atleast is pro EU
This user posts exclusively pro-Chinese and anti-European content in very high frequency.
The first time I read someone post this a few weeks ago I was skeptical, but then I started to look for it, and I must say it’s true, at least as far as my feed is concerned.
Some bias is ok (if the sources are credible), but atm 8/20 posts overwhelm my community feed…maybe because we’re still a small group.
You can check the user’s post history. It’s quite evident
This is very one-sided, impatient, pessimist and reductionist.
The EU survived the exit of the UK and it will survive a possible exit of France. What it will not survive is pessimist defeatism like this, especially among elected officials, but also in the populace.
EU was able to withstand CoViD; the addition of the war against the Ukraine fueled rapid changes energy and military infrastructure almost on a pan-European scale; united, the EU was able to negotiate against the aggressive US-American trade behaviour; currently it saves Greenland from US land grab, ensuring its right to secede.
This opinion piece doesn’t show its true colors, it wants all or nothing, as if things ever worked that way.
If Merz could work on getting the economy started instead of parroting AfD shit, i would be so happy
For that he’d need at least a concept of a plan for what to do. Bout that’s not what he or his party are know for.
Aren’t they just neo liberals, you know - like the Democrats?
Yes they are. Get the market to do their job. Act surprised when it doesn’t.
Almost all German political parties are.
Which is the direct cause for the German infrastructure being so broken, because that’s what happens to a country that’s under continuous neoliberal rule for 4 decades or so.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-economy-rose-02-2025-2026-01-15/
It’s not hugely impressive but after 2 years of decline, the economy rising by 0.2% in 2025 is a noticeable improvement.
Actually he is in an easy position to boost the economy. He has 500 billion Euro to basically spend as he sees fit. That would boost the economy. But unfortunately he uses the money to lint the pockets of his peers and the meager rest flows into industry from the early 20th century.
He could use those 500 billion to transition to renewable energy and fix the infrastructure and give tax breaks to the lower income bracket and - just like that - the economy would soar.
But nooo, we cannot have that. Stop the transition, buy gas and oil from dictators and give tax breaks to business owners who just stack the money instead of investing it. Because the investment environment is unstable as hell, because Merz and friends don’t know where they want to go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And thus, we’re stuck at 0.2% growth.
The previous comment said “work on getting the economy started”. I’m saying from a declining economy to a growing economy is making a start. In the face of tariffs from the US hurting exports I’d say it’s not the worst start either.
If you are expecting a full turn around in a year and saying anything less is a failure, I think you need to adjust your expectations.
Edit: as an addition from the article
Despite a 5.1% increase in government expenditure in 2025, the financial deficit was almost 8 billion euros lower than the previous year because revenue grew 5.8%.
You can have an issue with his policy, all I’m saying is that from an economic perspective, it seems to be an improvement.
If I remember correctly the 500 billion loan is packaged in a way that it doesn’t count towards the official deficit number, so this is pure smoke and mirrors.
I expect recipes which work. If your export oriented economy is hurt by the geopolitical landscape you need to strengthen your domecstic demand. They’re doing nothing of that sort. That is what I am complainig about.
So the economy is up, deficit is down, but it’s not being done in the way you want, so it’s bad?
I really can’t see your point.
My point: if you deny, in times of crisis, the needed funds to your previous government, they subsequently grant it to you, and you manage to only get a 0.2% growth, when you would have the means of around 10% GDP at your disposal…you’re doing it badly, yes.
And we’re discussing all of that in the context of rising fascism…you need to be faster in letting the voters feel something.
Can I take this back to the start.
Comment 1 says the economy is bad.
I said, it has actually grown in 2025 for the first time in 3 years. Then linked a source.
I feel Ike you are moving the goal posts to make a point when all I did was contradict someone and give a source.
“The economy” doesn’t rise at all. It’s just the BIP, probably the worst possible single number to measure the functioning of an economy, especially in circumstances of growing inequality.
The comment was that the economy needs to improve, and according to Reuters, it has.
If you know if another method of showing the health of a countries finances and can show it hasn’t improved I would be happy to read about it.
That’s rich coming from thus German gov. They enable the far right
And Merz personally hasn’t been that steadfast either. Openly and rightfully questioning if the US is still an ally, meanwhile still buying US military equipment. Now helping the US in tearing down the union by questioning the EU. This statement doesn’t solve anything, it only weakens the EU. Why would he say that?
Look at Merz’ employment history and you know where his loyalty lies.
It’s not with Germany, it’s not with the EU, it’s with the US investment firm BlackRock.
True. But Merz could never disappoint me. He’s doing what’s expected of him. The last German gov — now THAT was a disappointment.
Scholz was ineffective, but he’s not the one for whom the invasion of Venezuela was very complex or who sees a migration problem in the Stadtbild. He enabled the FDP, but merz is enabling the AFD, so that feels like a tossup.
To be fair, the commenter you replied to never said that the previous government was worse. They just said they were disappointed in it, which I can fully understand.
And it is no surprise that merz and the CDU are acting that way. As they were assholes even before being elected.
Yeah, none of this is a surprise, sadly. The CDU is effective, but wants evil things; the SPD is better on the surface, but both ineffective and cowardly in the moment it counts; FPD are capitalists; AFD/FW are racist manipulators; and all of them are willing to sell Germany out to better themselves.
I’m not happy with the other parties, but I don’t see them as problematically, either because they’re less relevant or less corrupt (from what I can tell as an immigrant here for five years- I don’t know what the fuck BSW is about, for example, but I certainly don’t trust it).
but both ineffective and cowardly in the moment it counts;
The current day SPD isn’t ineffective nor cowardly, they are just good at faking tummy aches over implementing things that hurt the majority, but benefit the rich. Whenever there is an upcoming election, they’ll fake caring about the working class to get some votes, just to go back to their real neoliberal self when if they win.
Have a good look at German history and see who implemented the harshest social cutbacks in the post WW2 period.
I don’t know what the fuck BSW is about, for example
They are really just about licking Putin’s boots and their job is catching the idiots not susceptible to the AfD’s brand of Putin bootlickery.
The last government was a disappointment because in the beginning it gave some people hope for actual improvements. We don’t have those hopes with the current one in the first place.
It only was a disappointment to the stupid and the ignorantly naive.
The FDP was just doing FDP things, the SPD was just doing SPD things, and the Greens were just doing Greens things while pretending to have a bad tummy ache over some of the harsh decisions.
Just look at German history of the past 40 years, specifically which party did what in that period. You’ll find that everyone ever in power during that time always and reliably has done neoliberal redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.
I haven’t been able to read the full article because it’s behind a paywall, but I can see where it’s going. It treats these as two separate problems when they’re really the same thing. The actions of an aggressive United States and an expansionist Russia clearly fuel far-right parties, and this is part of that broader attack. Treating them as separate issues is a mistake.
On the other hand, the solution is also shared: creating a unified military structure — not 27 coordinated ones, but a single force. That would automatically include a common intelligence apparatus, which could effectively fight foreign interference in our elections and internal affairs. I’ve read about half a dozen calls from European leaders on this over the past year, but there’s still no concrete proposal on the table. If we keep waiting, by the time we finally unite it will be too late. As citizens, we need to apply pressure as much as we can.
The citizens of the EU have hard choices to make: either support their own democracies and the EU as a whole, or slide back into populism and ultimately isolated dictatorships.
It’s not a black and white. We could keep the status quo of multiple independent nations that put together a single military and economic market.
Or we can just fuck it and stop waving ridiciolous flags and accepting artifical borders.
I don’t trust an unchecked European government to not become US-like.
I don’t trust a government.
I come to this from an Italian perspective, where the EU is very much seen as a given, not something that needs to be continually construed. This leads to a certain passivity and lack of “propositivity”, which we can all witness. Italy has become a follower on EU matters. This is also manifest in national political and media discussions on everything EU-related: there is some discussion on what the EU should do, but hardly any on what Italian leaders can and should do to make that happen.
There’s a big difference between warning that nationalists are a risk to the European project and expressing doubt about the future of the European project.
The person they’re quoting is a green politician, not the chancellor in the picture, and she’s absolutely pro European.
I Think it is the passe Thing to just start blaming the rigth of what to come, instead of just making Things better. No one will vote for the far rigth, if the guys at the top just do a good job and start focussing on the real issues here. Maybe stop all the survailance shit of EU citizens for startes.
That’s categorically untrue.
No matter how good your leadership is, the far right can literally exploit ANYTHING negative happening.
The 2007/08 market crash was purely down to the US fucking up their own markets and it rippled out of there - but the far right latched onto it and immediately blamed the EU and visa foreign workers.
The 2012-2015 immigration crisis was also thanks to the US (specifically their middle Eastern interventionalism), yet the far right managed to grab onto the issue and win serious ground with it - even though the situation was mostly well handled given the circumstances.
The one thing the (far) right does well is taking the truth and twisting it into hateful, fear-mongering rhetoric.
It’s really easy:
- Enable the right
- Blame the right
- Repeat
You can do a good job all you want… if voters see lies as equally valid argument you can’t win.
(That being said you surely have a point that the current governments don’t usually work in favor of the majority… but that applies even more for right-wing parties bought by even more corrupt elites.)
This fucking cunt!
Archived version: https://archive.ph/Jlnne
