At the end of World War II, the Allied powers convened the Potsdam Conference to determine how Germany would be supervised, considering its role as the instigator of the war. After restraints on Germany following World War I proved unsuccessful at preventing another global conflict, it was decided that more stringent measures had to be taken. Germany was divided into four quadrants to be directly controlled by the four Allied powers. The United States controlled the southern zone, Britain the northwest, France the southwest, and the Soviet Union controlled the east zone. Berlin, located within the Soviet-occupied territory, was run jointly by the Allies until 1948, when the city was split between East and West Berlin. Germany was ultimately reunified in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall during the decline of the Soviet Union.

This reunification elicited anxiety from the European community, and many eurozone nations feared that a reunified Germany would alter the balance of power and disrupt the peace they had experienced for nearly half a century. Germany is a powerful force in Europe and around the world, and their recent policies have challenged transatlantic relations and European cohesion. Their positions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Iran nuclear deal, and the NATO alliance are several examples of this disruption.

Germany is the destination of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would double, to 110 billion cubic meters, the volume of Russian gas entering Germany and other European countries. Political tensions over the pipeline are high because Nord Stream 2 would not only increase German reliance on Russian gas but would also bypass Ukraine, a key ally in the region which is working to counter an expansionist Russia. Critics are concerned about European reliance on Russian energy, which is already at 40% across the continent. Nord Stream 2 would only increase Russia’s market share.

Nonetheless, Germany has been a powerful force in support of the project. This is a case of Germany pursuing policies contrary to our Allied geopolitical strategy.

Another problem for the United States is Germany’s position on the Iran nuclear deal. Signed in 2015 by Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany, and the European Union, this deal compelled Iran to willingly relinquish its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions imposed by other signatories. In May 2018, the United States withdrew from the agreement, citing evidence that Iran was not in compliance, and reinstated sanctions. Meanwhile, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas publicly called for a payment system to purposefully bypass United States sanctions on Iran.

Finally, Germany has been challenged on its funding of NATO. At the NATO summit in Wales in 2014, member states agreed to increase their defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2024. The United States has the highest defense spending of any NATO country at 3.6% of GDP. Germany, however, spends only 1.2% of GDP on defense, although it is Europe’s strongest economy. Of the 29 NATO members, more than half spend more than 1.2% of their GDP on defense.

Given that Germany can clearly afford its fair share for NATO, its commitment to this important alliance is seriously lacking.

We need a Germany which is in sync with the West and aligned with the eurozone instead of going it alone. To promote a positive and cohesive Western geopolitical strategy, Germany should pay greater consideration to the goals and concerns of their partners: the United States and our European allies.

Francis Rooney is the Representative for Florida’s 19th Congressional District. He is the ranking member of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2008.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/germany-goes-it-alone-without-respect-for-its-partners

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ANGELA Merkel is holding crisis talks today to try and save her political future after her interior minister said he was ready to quit over her handling of the migration crisis.

Horst Seehofer revealed he was poised to resign from his crucial cabinet post and key role as leader of her coalition partners because he believes the German Chancellor is too soft on immigration.

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Merkel stressed her interest in bolstering European unity and suggested that it could underpin a new “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties — her own conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats.

The two sides will begin discussions Wednesday on a possible extension of their coalition of the past four years. But it is far from certain that a new alliance will come together.

Germany is on course to easily beat its previous record of 86 days — set in 2013 — for the time from an election to the swearing-in of a new government.

After their disastrous election result on Sept. 24, the Social Democrats said they would go into opposition. They reluctantly agreed to reconsider after Merkel’s coalition talks with two smaller parties collapsed.

Christian Democratic Union party chairwoman and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a party’s leaders meeting at the headquarters in Berlin, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017. Markus Schreiber AP Photo

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Source:  http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article189116449.html  

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Exploratory talks to form Germany’s next coalition government collapsed shortly before midnight on Sunday when the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) walked out of marathon negotiations.

“The four discussion partners have no common vision for modernisation of the country or common basis of trust,” the FDP leader, Christian Lindner, announced after the four parties involved missed several self-prescribed deadlines to resolve differences on migration and energy policy. “It is better not to govern than to govern badly.”

The euro slid in Asian trade overnight thanks to the uncertainty in Europe’s powerhouse nation. Against the yen, the euro was down 0.6% on the day to a two-month low and slipped 0.5% against the US dollar. It was down 0.43% against the pound at €1.125.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been trying to forge a coalition between her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), the pro-business FDP and the Green party, following federal elections at the end of September.

Announcing the collapse of talks as an “almost historic day”, Angela Merkel on Sunday night insisted that the parties would have been capable of reaching a compromise even in spite of their polarised views on migrations, and described the FDP’s walk-out as “regrettable”.

A so-called “Jamaica” coalition – so nicknamed because the parties’ traditional colours mirror those of the Jamaican flag – represents new ground even for Germany’s experienced leader and has only previously been tested at regional level.

In a month of talks, Merkel has often cut a passive figure as party representatives found themselves at loggerheads over issues such as the question of how many of the migrants who found their way to Germany in 2015 and 2016 would be allowed to be reunited with their families.

Migration emerged as a contentious political issue in Germany following the refugee crisis, when 1.2 million migrants entered the country in 2015-16. The backlash against Merkel’s decision to keep open Germany’s borders has resulted in a far-right party, the anti-refugee Alternative für Deutschland, entering the German parliament for the first time in more than 50 years.

In the coalition talks in Berlin, the CDU, the CSU and the FDP have, at times, worked to outdo each other on calling for a harder line on migration controls.

According to reports in German media, the Green party suggested a compromise over the weekend whereby they would agree to limit Germany’s annual intake of migrants to a benchmark figure of 200,000 – as long as other parties did not rule out allowing migrants with “subsidiary protection” status to be reunited with their families.

The parties have struggled to find a common ground on climate change, with the Greens calling for a reduction in coal-generated power of 8-10 gigawatts while its potential coalition partners have expressed concerns about job losses in the energy and manufacturing sectors.

At the start of the weekend, the FDP leader, Christian Lindner, announced a deadline for the exploratory talks. “If we don’t work it out by 6pm on Sunday, the whole thing is dead,” his deputy, Wolfgang Kubicki, said. Yet the talks went on past that deadline.

If the parties had come to an agreement, negotiations would have moved to the next stage, in which a document with fundamental agreements provides the basis for the carving up of ministerial roles.

With talks now seemingly over, Merkel could seek to form a minority government, either with the FDP or the Greens, and gather support from other parties on individual policy votes.

The Social Democrat leader, Martin Schulz, whose party has played junior partner to Merkel in the German government for the past four years, ruled out the possibility of another grand coalition under his leadership. “The voter has rejected the grand coalition,” Schulz said at a party conference in Nuremberg on Sunday.

Once all other options are exhausted, Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, could dissolve the current parliament and call fresh elections. To get there, however, Steinmeier would need first to set into motion a complicated process that would involve a parliamentary vote on Merkel’s role as interim chancellor.

While the debate in Germany over the past few weeks has mainly focused on policy differences between the parties, it is likely to soon shift to the chancellor, and the question of whether or not she still commands sufficient power to hold together a strong government.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/19/german-coalition-talks-close-to-collapse-angela-merkel

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