General Discussion

Merz is an ambitious, not overly popular politician who thought for 16 yesrs that he should be his party’s leader, not Merkel. Like McCain in 2008, it finally got to be “his turn” to be the CDU candidate for chancellor. Unlike McCain, he had no credible opposition in the election, and even with that, he had to struggle to top 30% in the election (!!!).

What the Germans (and the whole EU except Hungary) are celebrating is the fact that finally an English-speaking EU head of state felt no reticence about correcting Trump, to his face and on camera, about what’s true and what isn’t.