News about Germany

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German Chancellor Merz says Berlin back with voice in Europe

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has met top EU officials, promising that Europe’s biggest economy was back to help steer the bloc at a tough time. Follow DW for our latest updates on news from and about Germany.

AfD lawmaker Krah investigated over China bribes, money laundering
Prosecutors in the eastern German city of Dresden announced Friday that they have begun an investigation into whether far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Maximilian Krah accepted bribes from China as well whether he is guilty of money laundering.

The charges stem from Krah’s time as a European parliamentarian. After numerous scandals in Brussels — investigations into charges of accepting Russian bribes during that time, for instance, are still underway — he was voted out of parliament and is now an AfD parliamentarian in Berlin.

Prosecutors have requested that his immunity against prosecution be lifted. They are currently seeking to determine “if there is sufficient cause to bring charges or whether the proceedings should be discontinued.”

Krah has claimed that these latest accusations, like others prior, are “politically motivated.”

New German FM claims agreement with Poland over border checks
Despite Polish complaints over Germany’s current migration and border policies, new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday, “In my talks in Warsaw, I did not detect any major irritation but rather a great deal of agreement.”

Wadephul, speaking on the sidelines of Friday’s EU foreign ministers’ summit in Lviv, Ukraine, said: “We all have a migration problem in Europe. We must solve it together.”

The new German foreign minister voiced support for Polish President Donald Tusk’s calls for strengthened external borders for the bloc, especially in light of continued provocations from Belarus. Wadephul said that he and his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, would travel to the Polish-Belarus border to assess the situation.

Speaking of Belarus intentionally bringing migrants to the border to be released into the EU, Wadephul said: “We must find joint answers to this. That is the focus of our policy.”

Merz more upbeat about NATO, doubts Ukraine will join soon
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he is more optimistic about the future of the NATO alliance than he was three months ago when he questioned its continued existence in light of the attitude of the US administration under President Donald Trump.

“What has changed is the acceptance of what we, as European NATO partners, are doing,” Merz told a joint Brussels news conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

“And that is why I associate the NATO summit in June with more hope today than I did back in February — that we will succeed in developing a joint strategy with the Americans,” he added, referring to a NATO meeting planned for next month in the Netherlands.

Merz also said he had no hopes of Ukraine joining NATO in the near future, as he visited Brussels for the first time since taking office.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv applied for membership to the European Union and urged allies in the NATO military alliance to issue an invitation for it to join.

While NATO agreed last year to admit Ukraine in the future without setting a date, the US administration under Donald Trump has since ruled out such a move. NATO allies must unanimously agree on admitting new members.

Merz said Ukraine would not join NATO until it had also joined the EU, something that most experts say won’t happen until 2030 at the earliest.

Merz speaks to Netanyahu by phone
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has spoken by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three days after taking office, to discuss developments in the Gaza Strip.

“The chancellor condemned in the strongest terms the brutal terrorist attack by [Palestinian Islamist organization] Hamas on October 7. He expressed his concern about the fate of the hostages and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” said government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

Merz expressed hope that negotiations for a ceasefire would soon begin, the spokesman added.

The chancellor, who heads Germany’s new coalition government of conservatives and Social Democrats, also referred to upcoming visits to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations being established between Germany and Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will arrive in Berlin on Sunday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier set to join him on his return to Israel on Tuesday.

The countries only established diplomatic relations on May 12, 1965, two decades after the end of the Second World War.

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