Ever since the German Parliament building reopened in Berlin in 1999, its second-largest meeting room has been occupied by what had often been Germany’s second-largest party, the Social Democrats. Even the room’s name, the Otto Wels Hall, bears the party’s imprint: Wels led the Social Democrats from 1919 until the Nazis drove him to exile….
Friedrich Merz became Germany’s 10th postwar chancellor on Tuesday after a historic stumble that could complicate his efforts to revive the nation’s slumping economy, tighten its borders and rebuild its military, at a time when an isolated Europe is hungry for strong German leadership. After 10 weeks as the nation’s leader-in-waiting following his party’s victory…
Two decades ago, before Friedrich Merz came back from the private sector to win the German chancellorship, he accepted an invitation to a gathering of the French Foreign Legion in Corsica. At the last moment, the organizers asked him to arrive on the parade ground not by road or rail, but by parachute. Mr. Merz,…
Lockered Gahs, known unofficially as Bud, was a 20-year-old soldier in the U.S. Army who had been fighting for a year when he and his unit first entered the Dachau concentration camp just outside Munich in 1945. His unit — the 42nd Infantry Division — had seen harrowing combat since it began fighting in France….
Germany’s domestic intelligence service has classified the far-right Alternative for Germany, which some polls show as the most popular in the country, as an extremist party, the German authorities announced on Friday. The classification, which allows the agency to use more powerful surveillance tools to monitor the party and its leadership, is certain to inflame…
Since a Paris court barred her from standing for public office, Marine Le Pen has denounced a “witch hunt,” accused “the system” of deploying “a nuclear bomb” against her, evoked “judicial tyranny,” and suggested her followers are treated as “subhuman.” In short, the French far-right leader, having spent the past 15 years trying to shed…
In Britain, a languishing prime minister is suddenly a statesman, while his up-and-coming populist rival has been thrown on his heels. In Canada, the incumbent Liberal Party has a chance to win an election long thought out of reach. In Germany, the incoming center-right chancellor is dominating the agenda after an election many feared would…
Ever since the Berlin Wall fell and the country reunited, Germans could be expected to keep budget deficits relatively low, military spending even lower, and politics at a plodding pace. The next German government is smashing all those traditions before it even takes office. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats and the…
For months leading into the American elections last fall, the prospect of a second Trump presidency deepened uncertainty among Ukrainians over how enduring American support would prove in a war threatening their national survival. After President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous meeting with President Trump in the White House on Friday, many Ukrainians were moving toward a…
Interference by Trump administration officials in the German campaign put off some left-leaning voters but was welcomed by others supporting the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, according to a smattering of interviews at polling stations. Several voters in the eastern city of Dresden took note of a speech by Vice President JD Vance at…