Inside Germany: How Merz handled his trip to the White House and one last spring holiday

Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might've missed. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Merz in the White House
You've got to wonder how German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was feeling this week after his big day in the spotlight on the international stage was largely eclipsed by news about a falling out between US President Donald Trump and his former right-hand man Elon Musk.
Merz
did meet the US President in the White House
-- first for a televised conversation in which the Chancellor gave Trump a copy of the birth certificate of his grandfather Frederick who was born in Germany in 1869. Merz then suggested that Trump was the "key person in the world" with influence that could be used to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump, in turn, made several off-colour remarks: comparing Russia's war of aggression to children fighting, and later, referring to the anniversary of a turning point in the Second World War in Germany, asking, "That was not a pleasant day for you?"
To his credit, Merz appeared to play the statesman successfully. It was reported that the German chancellor had studied videos of previous Oval Office ambushes and planned to stay calm and let Trump talk -- and indeed that's mostly what he did. He did correct Trump on a point about Ukraine, and in response to the baffling comment about WWII, he simply said: "This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship. We know what we owe you."
Following the meeting, which also included a private chat over lunch, Merz has said he has "no doubt at all" that the US will stick with NATO going forward. He also voiced optimism about Trump being open to negotiating a deal around US-EU trade, which could potentially mitigate tariffs that are set to increase next month. But whether Merz's optimism is warranted remains to be seen. If Trump were to change his mind about NATO, trade and the war in Ukraine...well it wouldn't be the first time.
Following his long day with the President, Merz did a series of interviews in English with various media outlets. In one interview with
Fox News,
he used an uncouth turn of phrase and implied that antisemitism in Germany was primarily a problem imported
by the immigrant population
.
The remark is perhaps a perfect example of Merz's dizzying ability to criticise far-right extremist politics in Germany and parrot its rhetoric in the same breath.
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Germany prepares for the
Pfingsten
holiday
Sunday is Pentecost, or Whit Sun, or sorry...
wir sind in Deutschland, es ist Pfingsten.
The holiday on Sunday extends into a public holiday on Monday, and plenty of people in Germany surely have plans for what is the last long holiday weekend until reunification day in October.
If you haven't made plans yet, you might consider the
Meistertrunk
Show in Rothernburg, or the
Karneval der Kulturen
in Berlin, as reporter Tom Pugh suggested in our guide to
what's open and closed for the holiday.
Or, if you plan to use the extra day to drive elsewhere in Europe, you can save a few euros by
checking how fuel prices compare over the border
.
Advertisement
But whatever you do, make sure to stock up on your groceries by Saturday at the latest -- remember that most stores and businesses will be shut on both Sunday and Monday.
And with that, we're off for the weekend as well. Enjoy!

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Stymied French politicians turn to sins of the past – DW – 06/07/2025

3 hours ago

Stymied French politicians turn to sins of the past – DW – 06/07/2025

Amid parliamentary deadlock, the politics of remembrance has gained momentum in France. Three new initiatives attempt to recognize and heal historical injustices — at least symbolically. On Thursday, two years after France's controversial retirement age increase, the National Assembly voted to withdraw the reform. While the news was politically explosive because the far-right National Rally helped the left-wing opposition gain a majority in the vote, the decision hasn't yielded any actual legal results. The situation reflects the country's ongoing failure to address structural reforms since the parliamentary elections last summer, which left the government won without an absolute majority. But in the area of remembrance policy there has been significant movement. In the same week as the toothless retirement resolution, parliamentarians adopted three texts that reclassify historical events or offer the prospect of reparations. Alfred Dreyfus, shown here in the 1930s, is considered a national hero by many French people today Image: epa/AFP/dpa/picture alliance Alfred Dreyfus posthumously promoted On June 2, the French parliament voted unanimously to posthumously appoint Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general. The Jewish officer was wrongly accused of high treason in 1894, based on falsified evidence that he revealed military secrets to the German embassy in Paris. Dreyfus subsequently spent four years in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony off the coast of French Guiana. The Franco-German dimension of the case had explosive foreign policy implications even then. The suspect's Jewish origins and his family background in the Alsace-Lorraine region, which came under German rule after the Franco-Prussian War, and strained relations with Germany, made him an ideal target for the nationalist mistrust many French people harbored at the time. Writer Émile Zola famously sided with Dreyfus in his essay "J'accuse…!", which played a critical role in the officer's exoneration and military rehabilitation in 1906. Nevertheless, after serving in the First World War as a lieutenant colonel, Dreyfus was only reinstated at a lower rank. This posthumous promotion for Dreyfus still has to pass the Senate. Alsatian MP Charles Sitzenstuhl, a member of French President Emmanuel Macron's center-right Renaissance Party, who introduced the initiative, offered a link to the present as a warning: "The anti-Semitism that plagued Alfred Dreyfus is not a thing of the distant past," he said. In June 1954, Indochinese conscripts hastily erect new fortifications for French colonial forces in Phu Ly, south of Hanoi, Vietnam Image: AP/picture alliance Recognizing returnees from Indochina Just one day after the Dreyfus vote, the National Assembly also passed a law to recognize and compensate former returnees from French Indochina after the colonial rule of territories including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia ended in 1954. Around 44,000 people were repatriated to France, among them colonial officials, soldiers and their families, the descendants of French colonizers and local women, as well as local collaborators. Between 4,000 to 6,000 returnees ended up in temporary camps, which were often outfitted with wooden barracks that lacked heating and plumbing. Returnees were also subject to degrading policies that included bans on going out and owning cars or other luxury goods. The new law introduced by the left-wing Socialist Party now provides for financial support based on someone's length of stay in the camps. It is estimated that up to 1,600 people could claim compensation. Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries today Image: Java Reparations for Haiti? On June 5, the Assembly adopted a resolution addressing a "double debt" to Haiti that goes back to 1825. That was the year that France forced Haiti, which had declared independence in 1804, to pay compensation of 150 million gold francs. This was intended as a recognition of independence that would also compensate for the loss of French colonial possessions, including income from slaves. Haiti was forced to settle this "independence debt" over decades — a considerable economic burden that contributed to long-term poverty and instability on the island. The resolution, initiated by the Communist Party, calls for recognition, repayment and reparations for Haiti. But the text does not include concrete political steps or financial agreements. Nevertheless, the far-right National Rally voted against it. The "Senegalese riflemen," or "tirailleurs sénégalais," were a colonial infantry recruited by the French army during the First World War Image: The Print Collector/Heritage-Images/picture alliance A history of remembering Remembrance politics have some tradition in France. In 2001, the "Taubira" law, named after the parliamentarian who introduced it, recognized the slave trade and practice of slavery as crimes against humanity. The topic has been a part of school curricula in France ever since. In October 2006, the National Assembly passed a bill to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire with a year in prison or fine of €45,000 ($51,300). The bill never came into force after it failed to pass in the Senate, and was followed by a similarly doomed initiative introduced under President Nicolas Sarkozy. That draft law passed both chambers of parliament, but was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council in February 2012, which said that it amounted to unlawful interference with freedom of expression and research. Another example is the treatment of the so-called "Senegalese riflemen," the colonial soldiers from Africa who fought for France in the two world wars. For decades, many received significantly lower pensions than their French comrades, especially if they lived outside of France after decolonization. It was not until 2009 that President Sarkozy decreed an equalization of pension benefits, a step that held great symbolic significance. Social maturity or empty gestures? The latest spike in such initiatives has been met with mixed interpretations by political scientists. Some experts see the willingness to take historical responsibility as a form of social maturity. But others point out that in a politically paralyzed legislature, symbolic initiatives are easier to pass than structural reforms in areas such as pensions, education or the budget. This article was originally written in German.

German govt to ask EU court to rule on migrant turnbacks – DW – 06/07/2025

4 hours ago

German govt to ask EU court to rule on migrant turnbacks – DW – 06/07/2025

06/07/2025 June 7, 2025 German interior to seek EU verdict on border turnbacks Germany's Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the German government would seek a ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the legality of migrant turnbacks at the border. Dobrindt's comments to the Funke media group follow a ruling by a court in Berlin on Monday that the refusal to allow three Somali nationals to enter last month was unlawful. The court ruled that on May 9, border guards failed to initiate proper asylum procedures and returned the trio to Poland. According to the court, Germany should have applied the European Union's so-called Dublin Regulation, establishing which country is responsible for the asylum claim of the migrants, before they were sent back. The Dublin rule specifies which EU state should process an asylum application, partly to prevent arrivals from making claims in wealthier countries rather than the first EU nation that they entered. Dobrindt said the government would provide its rationale for invoking Article 72 — a special clause under EU law that permits exceptions to the Dublin rule in emergencies. "We will submit sufficient justification, but the European Court of Justice should decide on the matter," Dobrindt said, adding: "I am convinced that our actions are in line with European law." Dobrindt insisted that Germany had to crack down on illegal migration, which he said would prevent the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from pushing more radical solutions. German Chancellor Merz rejects criticism of border controls To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Germany introduced tougher border checks on May 7, including new rules allowing asylum seekers to be turned away at the border for the first time. In the first days of the new rule, 19 people who sought asylum in Germany were denied entry, along with nearly 300 other migrants, local media reported. Following this week's court ruling, the cabinet approved even stricter measures.

Germany: Car drives into crowd in Passau – DW – 06/07/2025