When Donald Trump welcomes Friedrich Merz to the White House on Tuesday, the German leader will pile on praise over the lethal US-Israel strikes on Iran – and save the lectures on international law for another day.
Or possibly never. At 70, the chancellor is tossing out long-held policy certainties, including German diplomacy’s beloved moral cudgel.
In his first remarks on the strikes, Merz said on Sunday evening that “international law classifications bring relatively little” in discussing Iran and, on the contrary, had compounded a European “dilemma” over what he called a “terrorist Mullah regime”.
“This is not the time to lecture our partners and allies,” said Merz, saying Germany shared the end goal of Israel and US – if not necessarily the means.
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“There is never a right time to do something like this,” Merz added, “but there is a time when it is too late”.
Hours later on Monday, as France announced it was boosting its nuclear arsenal, Merz shattered a postwar taboo with confirmation of a Franco-German “high-ranking nuclear steering group”.
Though no time frame was mentioned, this group will push closer shared security co-operation including “conventional missile defence and French nuclear capabilities”.
After just 10 months in office, Merz allies praise this all as robust pragmatism, above all if it gives Merz an in with the US president.
Last June the chancellor survived his Oval Office debut relatively unscathed, but the warmth of the Trump welcome on Tuesday may depend on how far the president wants to push his European visitor.
Since taking office, Merz has tried to have it both ways with key partners. In Munich last month he called for a “revive and repair” approach to EU-US transatlantic relations – while admitting the postwar order was “being destroyed” by Washington as it was “perhaps gambling away” its unquestioned leadership role in the world.
Hours after the Merz solidarity with Washington and Jerusalem on Sunday, meanwhile, senior coalition figures struggled on Monday to explain what Germany – in a joint E3 statement with France and the UK on Iran – meant by “military defensive measures”.
“It means that, if any of our soldiers were attacked, they would defend themselves,” said Johann Wadephul, German foreign minister, a nod to 500 soldiers stationed in Iraq and Jordan.
And the E3 promise to “destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source”?
German government sources insisted the option of such strikes reflected a UK demand and not a Berlin ambition.
Behind the robust rhetoric, German reticence on the path ahead reflects divided public opinion and media reaction to the strikes.
While the Trump- and Israel-friendly Bild tabloid praised Merz for showing a “clear moral compass” in his statement, the leftist Tageszeitung (taz) denounced the German leader for backing a “Schrödinger international law” policy, simultaneously applicable and non-applicable.
“Europe is degrading international law,” it argued, “into the category of ‘nice to have’.”
Merz watchers saw a similar pragmatic pattern in his inaugural visit last week as chancellor to China. Forgotten, his warning as opposition leader in January 2025 of China leading an “axis of anti-democratic autocracies challenging out democracies”.
Instead, in Beijing the chancellor praised €250 billion in bilateral trade ties and new deals from aircraft to pork and bilateral partnerships for media organisations and table tennis teams.
There were careful, scripted mentions of China’s influence over Russia on Ukraine but no public mentions of human-rights concerns.
This new “Berlin realism” in foreign policy towards Washington and Beijing, the Frankfurter Allgemeine suggested on Sunday, arises from a “dismal acknowledgment that it has to shape both central relationships from a position of weakness”.
