As of: January 24, 2024, 8:03 a.m
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Donald Trump with his wife Melania and Olaf Scholz upon arrival at the 2017 G20 summit at Hamburg Airport.
© Rainer Unkel/Imago
The government does not want to respond publicly to Friedrich Merz's accusation that it is not preparing for another presidency of Donald Trump.
A different picture emerges behind the scenes.
They don't want to jump over this stick in the federal government: "It bothers me," Friedrich Merz said in the Table.Media interview about how carelessly the EU and especially Germany are dealing with the potential challenge of Donald Trump's re-election.
This is now a common criticism of the traffic lights in the CDU.
Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, says that this possibility “can no longer be ignored”.
Thorsten Frei believes the government is “completely unprepared” for this scenario.
The reaction in the government and coalition: silence.
You don't react to the stories of an opposition leader, says one.
One will not comment on Merz, someone else will.
But there are also other reasons for the reticence on the subject of Trump 2.0, as a high-ranking official says about the federal government's discreet efforts: It is "obvious that this does not tolerate the public eye at all."
They neither want to snub Joe Biden nor provide a template for Donald Trump, who could otherwise claim that the Europeans were already dancing to his tune before he even won the election.
And the domestic political debates about the consequences of a possible renewed Trump presidency do not want to be held ahead of time.
Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt is quoted as saying: “We cross the bridge when we get there.”
But at the same time there is a reference to some initiatives that can certainly be viewed under the heading of Trump 2.0: Olaf Scholz's Brussels warning to the EU partners to “also increase their efforts on behalf of Ukraine”.
The German contribution will not be enough to “ensure Ukraine’s security in the long term”.
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Baerbock wants to build a closer network with Trump's environment
But the efforts to establish (new) partnerships with Brazil and Indonesia, the possible arms exports to Saudi Arabia, Boris Pistorius' war prose and the 100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr can also be seen as preparation for a changed security situation with a US President Trump.
These points are about independence if the USA abdicates responsibility for European security.
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Elsewhere it's about the question of how you could influence a possible Trump administration - or at least have people you could approach.
Annalena Baerbock met with the Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other senators and congressmen from the Grand Old Party during her trip to the USA in September.
She had previously entrusted her people with organizing talks with local politicians and business people in Texas - right in the middle of the Republican heartland.
Among them is Governor Greg Abbott, who is considered Trump's confidant.
Andreas Michaelis, Germany's new ambassador to Washington, was sent to the USA by Baerbock last summer with the explicit task of tightening the network of contacts with the Trump wing of the GOP.
There are traditionally close ties from Berlin to the US Democrats and the Republican establishment.
But because the influence of moderate Republicans in the USA is dwindling more and more, Michaelis and his diplomats should address representatives of the Trump camp.
“Colleagues’ phone books are now thicker,” says the federal government.
The output of reports from Washington and the consulate general to the headquarters in Berlin has also increased in recent months.
Merz avoids contact with top Republican politicians
The federal government's coordinator for transatlantic cooperation, Michael Link (FDP), has made it his mission to spin at least one thread of conversation with the Trump people in order to be able to at least indirectly influence him when he is back in the White House sits.
This is reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“An important starting point is the identification of interests that coincide with German interests,” said Link.
Michael Scharfschwerdt, head of the AA's planning staff, "called on all departments in the house to examine the possible consequences of a Trump election on their respective areas of expertise," according to Spiegel.
In several reports and also in the conversations that Table.Media has had, there is talk of the Trump-related need to increase defense spending even further from 2025: to at least three, perhaps four or five percent of economic output.
But according to Spiegel in the Chancellery, this can only be implemented after a “political moment of shock”.
Dealing with Merz's accusation against the Scholz government also has an unexpected punch line.
Foreign policy experts report that the CDU chairman, who would like to become Chancellor by 2025 at the latest and perhaps earlier, has not yet been persuaded to travel to the USA himself.
Merz has not yet used contacts with top Republican politicians with whom the Union leadership could establish a connection.
By Stefan Braun, Damir Fras, Sven Siebert