Europe Moves On

[applegrove]

Europe Moves On

May 12, 2025 at 12:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 35 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2025/05/12/europe-moves-on/

The day after being sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz boarded a plane to Paris.

There, he stood side-by-side with French President Emmanuel Macron and unveiled a sweeping new bilateral defense pact—one that notably excludes the United States.

The two leaders called out “the systematic threat Russia poses to our European system,” and in doing so, made clear that Europe’s two largest economies are no longer counting on NATO as a reliable guarantor of security.

The most striking moment came when Macron announced the formation of a Franco-German Defense and Security Council, saying it would “meet regularly to provide operational solutions to our common strategic challenges.”