German VP Criticizes US-Europe Ties | Current Affairs

“The transatlantic alliance is experiencing a much deeper upheaval than we may have been ready to admit until now,” Klingbeil said in a speech in Berlin. “The transatlantic relationship as we have known it is currently collapsing,” he added.

The Vice-Chancellor admitted that he had become even more convinced of this in recent days. This week, he visited Washington with Foreign Minister Johann Vädeful.

Klingbeil represents the Social Democrats (SPD), which forms a coalition with Chancellor Friedrich Merz‘s conservative bloc, and his remarks on transatlantic relations are harsher than any of Merz’s recent statements.

The vice chancellor listed a number of reasons that support his belief that the ties between the US and Europe, which have traditionally been close allies, are changing radically.

Although Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela who was captured during a US military operation in Caracas, was a brutal dictator, Washington violated the principles of international law with such military action, Klingbeil said. “We should not consider Venezuela as an isolated case,” he added, recalling that the Trump administration has also issued threats to other Latin American countries.

He also cited Trump’s threat to seize Greenland and his administration’s national security strategy, which claims Europe is at risk of civilizational collapse.

“We are currently living in a time of historic upheaval (..), when all the certainties we could rely on in Europe are under pressure,” Klingbeil said.

The United States and Germany were united by a common interest in free trade and open markets, the vice chancellor recalled. “That’s not the case today. But that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on free trade or open markets.”

“We must not abandon trade based on rules. We must defend this order, if necessary, even without our American partners,” he stressed.