Germany’s Merz Makes Nuclear War More Likely

The new German chancellor also wants to station French fighter jets with nuclear weapons in Germany in addition to the American bombs.

How far the project has progressed has now become clear during talks between French President Macron and US President Trump in Washington. Macron signaled there that France was prepared to station fighter jets with nuclear weapons in Germany in order to use its nuclear deterrent to protect Europe. The British newspaper Telegraph reported this on Monday.

A French government official told the British newspaper that such a step should serve as a “message” to Kremlin chief Putin. Diplomats in Berlin are also said to have expressed the hope that the stationing of French aircraft in Germany would put pressure on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to follow suit and also station nuclear-capable fighter aircraft in Germany. “Stationing some French nuclear fighter jets in Germany should not be difficult and would send a clear message,” the Telegraph quoted its source as saying.

Shortly before the German election, CDU leader Merz had called for talks with France and Great Britain on “nuclear protection”. “We have to be prepared for the fact that Donald Trump will no longer fully accept the NATO treaty’s promise of assistance,” Merz said on ZDF. With regard to an adjustment of the so-called nuclear sharing, he said: “We have to talk to each other about what that could look like.”

Hungary is not going along with the war plans. This was already expressed in Orbán’s choice of words. For example, he referred to Ukraine as “a territory called Ukraine” and said that what was left of Ukraine would in future be a “buffer zone” between Russia and NATO.

On Friday Hungary blocked a statement from the EU summit on March 6 on security guarantees for Ukraine and a new package of military aid, Politico reported. Slovakian Prime Minister Fico also said that he would block any resolution of the EU summit if it did not contain a call for an early ceasefire.

It is worth noting that there is nothing in European treaties alluding to a common defense structure at all. The treaties instead all state that common defense should be a NATO affair. How will the Brexiteers, France and Germany legally circumvent this issue?

US President Donald Trump has categorically ruled out Ukraine joining NATO – one of the main war aims of NATO and the EU to date. He announced that Ukraine could forget about NATO at a meeting in response to a question from a journalist.

He then demonstrated his knowledge of history: the debate about joining the Western military alliance was “probably the reason why the whole thing started.” In fact, Kremlin chief Putin had made it clear on numerous occasions in the winter of 2021/2022 that Kiev’s accession to NATO was a “red line” that Moscow would solve by military means.

US Vice President JD Vance, who was also present at the meeting, intervened and noted how Trump was constantly “prematurely accused” of making concessions to Russia every time he establishes diplomatic relations. But: “He has not conceded anything to anyone,” said Vance. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had already made it clear at a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Brussels two weeks ago that NATO membership for Ukraine after the end of the war was not realistic.

Until a few months ago, NATO took the position that Ukraine’s path to joining the military alliance could no longer be stopped.

Since Donald Trump took office in the US, Hungarian President Orbán has had the upper hand. He sees his policies as vindicated and has now announced an even more determined course in his annual speech to party colleagues and officials of his Fidesz party to get rid of warmongers.

Orbán meanwhile sees the turnaround in US policy as encouraging him to create clarity in domestic politics. He has labelled critics as “traitors”, “pseudo-civil society activists” and “mercenaries of the Soros network”. He was referring to journalists and employees of non-governmental organisations, many of whom are financed from abroad and who are carrying out subversive work against the Hungarian government. Orbán accused them of corruption and abuse of power – and has declared war on them.

Without being more specific, the Budapest head of government said: “We will urgently create the constitutional and legal conditions so that we do not have to stand by and watch pseudo-civil society organizations serve foreign interests and organize political actions before our eyes.” The pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet recently reported that Orbán planned to expel critics from the country. The Hungarian public has since been discussing possible entry bans or denaturalizations of Orbán critics.

Orbán had already announced his offensive against opponents after US President Trump ordered the closure of the American development aid agency USAID.

The Hungarian government has also since then targeted USAID and has published almost daily statements declaring the organization a kind of underhand global power whose goal is to overthrow Christian, patriotic and national-conservative governments. In order to take action against USAID in Hungary, Orbán plans to send a special representative to the US soon to find out who the US organization has supported in Hungary.