Merz Calls For 'Independence' From US

Germany's Friedrich Merz has pledged to achieve "independence" from the United States after his centre-right alliance won parliamentary elections held amid doubts about US President Donald Trump's commitment to Europe's security.

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Merz, who faces complex negotiations with his party's traditional centre-left rival to form a coalition government after ruling out the second-placed hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), said on Sunday that it would be his "absolute priority" to strengthen Europe so it does not have to rely on Washington for its defence.

"I never thought I would have to say something like that on a TV programme, but after Donald Trump's latest comments in the last week, it is clear that the Americans, or at least this portion of the Americans, this government, care very little about the fate of Europe," the chancellor-in-waiting told a televised roundtable of political leaders.

Merz said he was not sure that NATO would exist in its "current form" by the time of the next meeting of the transatlantic military alliance in June, "or whether we will have to establish an independent European defence capability much more quickly".

"That is my absolute priority, I have no illusions at all about what will come out of America," Merz said.

He also took aim at tech billionaire Elon Musk, Trump's close ally and head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, for intervening in the election campaign to support the AfD, which secured its best-ever result in a national poll.