German chancellor Angela Merkel gave her strongest indication yet that Europe and the US under president Donald Trump are drifting apart, saying reliable relationships forged since the end of the second World War “are to some extent over”.

Speaking at a campaign rally in a beer tent in Munich on Sunday, Dr Merkel offered a glimpse of her world view after Mr Trump’s nine-day trip, during which he hectored Nato allies for not spending enough on defence, called Germany’s trade surplus “very bad,” and brought the US to the brink of exiting the global Paris climate accord.

Dr Merkel, who met Mr Trump during the Nato meeting in Brussels and the Group of Seven (G7) world leaders’ summit in Taormina, Sicily, said Europe must now plot its own course.

“The times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over – I experienced that in the last few days,” Dr Merkel told supporters in the Bavarian capital a day after the G7 meeting ended. “We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.

“Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US and with the UK and with other neighbours, including Russia, ” she said. Even so, “we have to fight for our own future ourselves”.

Richard Haass, president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, called Dr Merkel’s comments a “watershed” in a Twitter message, saying the scenario is “what US has sought to avoid” since the second World War.

Mr Trump spurned overtures by mostly European leaders to commit to the Paris climate treaty at the weekend G7 meeting, a development Dr Merkel called “very unsatisfactory”. After first meeting Mr Trump in Washington in March, Dr Merkel has had little success in finding common ground with her new American counterpart.

Despite Dr Merkel’s commitment to working towards Nato’s goal for each member country to spend the equivalent of 2 per cent of its economic output on defence by 2024, Mr Trump dressed down the leaders of the alliance at a summit meeting on May 25th for “not paying what they should”. He spoke shortly after Dr Merkel gave a two-minute speech lauding the alliance’s common purpose.

The German leader has hit back repeatedly as the Trump administration lambastes the country’s trade surplus with the US. On climate, meanwhile, European officials have braced for a US exit of the first global agreement that sets commitments on limiting global warming – one put together in 2015 by almost 200 countries.

Relations between Germany and the US became strained in 2002-2003 when then chancellor Gerhard Schröeder refused to support the US invasion of Iraq under president George W Bush. Dr Merkel’s comments, though, signalled a broader transatlantic split.

Dr Merkel made a pitch for European unity at the Munich rally, citing election victories over nationalist movements in France and the Netherlands as evidence that European Union voters were retreating from a populist surge.

Dr Merkel’s line on reliability, Europe’s need to plot its own course, and her pledge to “fight” in Europe’s interest drew extended applause from supporters dressed in traditional lederhosen and dirndls. Saying she’ll stand up for the EU project of “peace and freedom”, Dr Merkel singled out this month’s victory of Emmanuel Macron over nationalist Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential race.

“I wish Macron all the best for his country, that people have jobs again and that people have a future – that young people can believe in Europe again,” Merkel said. “Wherever Germany can help, Germany will help.”

The venue for Dr Merkel’s comments, a beer tent festooned with blue and white bunting set up by the chancellor’s Bavarian allies in the Christian Social Union (CSU), revealed the German leader in campaign mode 17 weeks before elections. Seeking her fourth term, Dr Merkel (62) brandished a tankard of beer after projecting herself as a defender of global stability after almost 12 years in office.

“We thought that after meeting with the US president, she would need a pause to recover,” Horst Seehofer, the Bavarian premier and chairman of the CSU, said at the rally. He feted Dr Merkel for “representing our fatherland excellently” abroad.

The praise by Mr Seehofer, who pilloried Dr Merkel throughout the country’s refugee crisis for not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants, marked a turnaround. After three recent state election wins by her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she’s rebounded in the polls as she aims for victory in the September 24th election.

Dr Merkel’s CDU and the CSU jointly have a 13-point lead over the Social Democrats, according to an Emnid poll published on Saturday, capturing a turnaround after the German SPD under Martin Schulz had largely pulled even with the chancellor’s faction in February and March. – (Bloomberg)</s>Angela Merkel – or “leader of the free world” as she is now to be known – did not wait long to see the back of Donald Trump before she made it clear that things have changed. She told a rally of 2,500 people in Munich where she kicked off her campaign to be re-elected that the EU must now be prepared to look after itself, that it could no longer depend on the UK or America. “The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over … I’ve experienced that in the last few days. We Europeans have to take fate into our own hands.”

Angela Merkel: EU cannot completely rely on US and Britain any more Read more

This is a truly dramatic statement from a leader who doesn’t do drama. She is not going to be holding Trump’s hand any time soon. He may be relieved to hear that, but then the underestimation of Merkel as a dowdy physicist has often allowed her to run rings around egotistical male leaders.

It was said to be a coincidence that she met Barack Obama the same day as Trump. It took a while for her to establish a friendship with Obama. She apparently disliked the “atmospherics” around him when he was first elected and wanted a more “conversational” relationship. She got it.

Watching her at the G7, her statesmanship, her ease, her ability to broker deals and relationships is ever more impressive. More and more I hear people say they that they like her. Even those on the left respect her though she is a centrist. While Trump shambled around Europe with his goon display of ignorance of other languages, cultures or even basic manners, Merkel was in her element. While he was trailing behind in a golf cart as he lacked the stamina to actually walk anywhere at all, she strode out with the other leaders.

Every gif of Trump shows him vacantly bumbling away, arrogantly shoving or being batted away by Melania. Gifs of Merkel, on the other hand, are a delight: her bemused expression when she has to deal with him, that twinkle, that little shrug she gives. She is at the top of her game – a game he has no idea how to play.

Merkel is at the top of her game – a game Donald Trump has no idea how to play

Vladimir Putin knew she was afraid of dogs, so brought a labrador to meet her on 2007. She didn’t flinch, later observing: “I understand why he has to do this – to prove he’s a man … He’s afraid of his own weakness.” No wonder Emmanuel Macron pulled off that wonderful swerve last week walking straight to Trump but greeting Merkel first.

Of course not everyone likes her. The Irish, the Portuguese, the Greeks, the Spanish and the Italians have felt the force of her pushing through stark austerity measures as the price of EU membership. At one point Greek protesters portrayed her with a Hitler moustache. Her expansionary politics, whereby every other country should seek to be as wealthy as Germany, have come at a huge price to countries she sees as fiscally irresponsible. Critics in Germany say she achieved a kind of “paralysed consent”. They complain about the number of opinion polls she has commissioned and her methodical, scientific way of dealing with politics.

Yet this, in reality, is why Mutti is considered so good at crisis management. Theatrics don’t interest her but there is a vision, a morality, a core to her that meant she could push through a policy of taking in refugees that required real guts.

Donald Trump offers shoves and strange handshakes on the world stage | Ross Barkan Read more

Asked if she was a feminist while sitting next to Ivanka Trump, Ivanka immediately raised her hand to say she was, and Merkel, who has done so much for women, hesitated and then said: “If you think that I am one, go and vote on it.” Friends say that she always considered herself emancipated by her studies and growing up in East Germany, where it was normal for women to work. Her husband, professor of theoretical chemistry Joachim Sauer, needs no security. They lead an unshowy life. The pictures of Merkel nipping out for chips, ecstatic at the football, drinking beer, are not set up. It’s what she does, though she no longer smokes or bites her nails to the quick in the way she did when she was younger. This all added to the geekiness that helped her to rise up through the party.

And look where she is now, unlike our prime minister, able to oppose Trump directly and to say his America is not a friend of Europe.

What an extraordinary woman. There are no problems, she says, only “tasks” to be solved, as she sits rapidly texting in meetings. Refusing to see herself as a female leader, she prefers to think of herself as part of a class of political heavyweights. Increasingly she is in a class of her own and watching her, one thought comes to mind: this is what strong and stable actually looks like.</s>Europe can no longer completely rely on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, pointing to bruising meetings of G7 wealthy nations and NATO last week.

Merkel did not mention by name U.S. President Donald Trump, who criticized major NATO allies and refused to endorse a global climate change accord, but she told a packed beer tent in Munich that the days when Europe could completely count on others were “over to a certain extent”.

“I have experienced this in the last few days,” she said. “And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands – of course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbors wherever that is possible also with other countries, even with Russia.”

“But we have to know that we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans,” Merkel said.</s>Munich — Europe can no longer completely rely on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, pointing to bruising meetings of Group of Seven (G-7) wealthy nations and Nato last week.

Merkel did not mention by name US President Donald Trump, who criticised major Nato allies and refused to endorse a global climate change accord, but she said in Munich that the days when Europe could completely count on others were "over to a certain extent".

"I have experienced this in the last few days," she said. "And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands — of course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbours wherever that is possible also with other countries, even with Russia.

"But we have to know that we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans," Merkel said.

The two-day G-7 summit in Italy pitted Trump against the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan on several issues, with European diplomats frustrated at having to revisit questions they had hoped were long settled.</s>Europe "must take its fate into its own hands" faced with a western alliance divided by Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.

"The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.

"We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands," she added.

While Germany and Europe would strive to remain on good terms with America and Britain, "we have to fight for our own destiny", Merkel went on.

Special emphasis was needed on warm relations between Berlin and newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron, she said.</s>German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Europe "must take its fate into its own hands" with the US and Britain not currently reliable.

Speaking at an election rally in Munich, Merkel said: "The times in which we could completely depend on others are somewhat over. I've experienced that in the last few days."

Read more: Macron says white-knuckled handshake with Trump was "not innocent"

With a nod to Britain facing Brexit and America under President Donald Trump, Merkel called on Europe to stick together in the face of new challenges.

"Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US and with the UK and with other neighbours, including Russia," she said, but added, "we have to fight for our own future ourselves".

She has just returned from a G7 summit in Italy, which resulted in no deal on upholding the Paris Agreement on climate change, with Trump still undecided on whether he will withdraw his country from the accord.

Yesterday, Merkel called the result of the "six against one" discussion difficult as well as unsatisfactory.

Trump however, struck a more positive tone in his latest comments on Twitter, saying his trip had been a "great success for America".

Trump has also said on Twitter that he will decide next week what to do with the US commitment to the Paris deal.

In their final communique from the summit, the G7 leaders noted they had failed to settle differences over climate change with Trump.

"The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics," it said.

"Understanding this process, the heads of state and of government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom and the presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement."

Read more: Trump to decide on US commitment to Paris climate change deal next week</s>After G7 Summit, Merkel Says Europe Can No Longer Completely Rely On U.S. And UK

On the heels of last week's G7 summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a wake-up call for European Union nations on Sunday. At a Munich stop on the campaign trail, Merkel told supporters that Europe can no longer count on the U.S. and the U.K. as reliable allies.

The days that Europe could completely rely on others are "over to a certain extent," Merkel warned at a rally in a packed Bavarian beer tent, Reuters reports. "I've experienced this in the last few days."

Her impassioned comments indicate her disappointment with the past week's contentious meetings of NATO in Brussels and the Group of 7 in Italy. Merkel had described the climate change talks at the G7 meeting as "very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying."

While leaders from the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan upheld their support of the Paris Climate Accord, President Trump said he needed more time to decide whether he would recommit to the accord that aims to combat climate change. "I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!" President Trump tweeted Saturday morning.

"We Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands," Merkel said, while also stressing the importance of maintaining friendly relations with the two nations, as well as other countries, "even with Russia."

"But we have to know that we must fight for our future, on our own, for our destiny as Europeans — and that's what I want to do together with you," she added.

Polls show the chancellor is on track to secure a fourth term in the September elections.</s>Europe can no longer completely rely on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, pointing to bruising meetings of G7 wealthy nations and NATO last week.

Merkel did not mention by name U.S. President Donald Trump, who criticized major NATO allies and refused to endorse a global climate change accord, but she told a packed beer tent in Munich that the days when Europe could completely count on others were “over to a certain extent.”

“I have experienced this in the last few days,” she said. “And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands – of course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbors wherever that is possible also with other countries, even with Russia.”

The two-day G7 summit in Italy pitted Trump against the leaders of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan on several issues, with European diplomats frustrated at having to revisit questions they had hoped were long settled.

The American tycoon-turned-president backed a pledge to fight protectionism at the end of the G7 summit on Saturday, but refused to endorse the climate pact, saying he needed more time to decide.

WATCH: Trudeau, other leaders try to sway Trump at G7



But EU Council President Donald Tusk said on Sunday he was more optimistic now than after the U.S. election last November after EU leaders held talks with Trump in Brussels.

“What I am absolutely sure after this meeting is that despite some extraordinary … expressions, behaviors, etc, etc, our partners in the G7 are much more responsible than the first impression after the election in the United States,” Tusk said in the Slovak capital.

READ MORE: Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump reaffirm Canada-U.S. relationship at G7 Summit

At the NATO summit on Thursday, Trump intensified his accusations that allies were not spending enough on defense and warned of more attacks such as this week’s Manchester bombing unless the alliance did more to stop militants.

WATCH: Germany calls out U.S. for leading ‘very unsatisfying’ climate debate at G7 summit



Turning to France, Merkel said she wished President Emmanuel Macron success, adding to applause: “Where Germany can help, Germany will help, because Germany can only do well if Europe is doing well.”

France is Germany’s second-biggest trading partner and the presidential election victory of the pro-European centrist reformer Macron over far-right protectionist rival Marine Le Pen in early May has sparked hopes that Berlin will ally with Paris in spearheading a broad-based economic revival in Europe.</s>German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her strongest indication yet that Europe and the US under President Donald Trump were drifting apart, saying reliable relationships forged since the end of the Second World War "are to some extent over."

Merkel’s comments at a campaign rally signal that last week’s Group of Seven (G-7) and Nato summits will reinforce her effort to unite the EU behind a global agenda that clashes with Trump’s in key areas. She is receiving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, hosts his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang, on Thursday, and is looking for a fresh start in German-French ties with newly elected President Emmanuel Macron.

The leader of Europe’s biggest economy offered a glimpse of her world view after Trump concluded a nine-day foreign trip during which he hectored Nato allies for allegedly not spending enough on defence, called Germany’s trade surplus "very bad" and brought the US to the brink of exiting the global Paris climate accord.

"The times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over — I experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told supporters in Munich on Sunday, a day after the G-7 meeting ended. "We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands."

"Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US and with the UK and with other neighbours, including Russia," she said. Even so, "we have to fight for our own future ourselves".

Merkel was speaking as a "deeply committed trans-Atlanticist," her chief spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin on Monday. "Honestly pointing out differences is the right thing to do, precisely because trans-Atlantic relations are so important."

The venue for Merkel’s comments, a beer tent festooned with blue-and-white bunting set up by the chancellor’s Bavarian allies in the Christian Social Union (CSU), showed the German leader in campaign mode ahead Germany’s election in September. Before that, she will host a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in July.

Seeking her fourth term, Merkel brandished a tankard of beer after projecting herself as a defender of global stability after almost 12 years in office. She cited election victories over nationalist movements in France and the Netherlands as evidence that EU are voters were retreating from a populist surge.

Richard Haass, president of the US Council on Foreign Relations, called Merkel’s comments on trans-Atlantic ties a "watershed" in a Twitter message, saying the scenario is "what US has sought to avoid" since the Second World War.

Faced with a more unpredictable world, Europeans may now "move closer together and address what has been missing for so long, namely institutional reform and a way forward for the EU, and the eurozone in particular," said Burkhard Varnholt, Credit Suisse’s deputy chief investment officer.

Trump spurned overtures by mostly European leaders to commit to the Paris climate treaty at the weekend G-7 meeting, a development Merkel called "very unsatisfactory". After first meeting Trump in Washington in March, Merkel has had little success in finding common ground with her new American counterpart.

Despite Merkel’s commitment to working toward Nato’s goal for each member country to spend the equivalent of 2% of its economic output on defence by 2024, Trump dressed down the leaders of the alliance at a summit meeting on May 25 for "not paying what they should." He spoke shortly after Merkel gave a two-minute speech lauding the alliance’s common purpose.

The German leader has hit back repeatedly as the Trump administration lambastes the country’s trade surplus with the US. On climate, European officials have braced for a possible US exit from the first international agreement that sets commitments on limiting global warming — an accord put together in 2015 by almost 200 countries and strongly backed by Merkel.

Relations between Germany and the US were strained in 2002-2003 when then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused to support the US invasion of Iraq under president George W Bush. Merkel’s comments, though, signalled a broader trans-Atlantic split.

Merkel’s line on reliability, Europe’s need to plot its own course and her pledge to "fight" in Europe’s interest drew extended applause from supporters dressed in lederhosen and dirndls.

Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer, who heads the CSU, shared the stage with Merkel and praised her for "representing our fatherland excellently" abroad.

The kudos by Seehofer, who pilloried Merkel throughout the country’s refugee crisis for not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants, marked a turnaround. After three state election wins by her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since March, she’s rebounded in polls against her main challenger, Social Democrat Martin Schulz.

Merkel’s CDU and the CSU jointly lead the Social Democrats by 13 percentage points, according to an Emnid poll published Saturday, capturing a turnaround after Schulz lifted the SPD to a dead heat with the chancellor’s bloc in February and March.</s>German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her experience at recent international summits featuring US President Donald Trump showed her Europe can't "completely" rely on the United States and other longstanding allies.

"The times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent, over," Merkel said at a campaign event in Munich. "I experienced that in the last a few days, and therefore I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands."

Trump addressed NATO members on Thursday, pointedly instructing member nations to increase their defense spending. Then at the G7 summit on Friday and Saturday, leaders including Merkel failed to convince Trump to commit to stay in the Paris climate deal. Trump tweeted from Sicily on Saturday that he would make a final decision next week, and the US took a separate stance on climate from the other nations in the official G7 communique.

Merkel met with former US President Barack Obama in Berlin prior to the NATO summit on Thursday. Along with Obama, Merkel has been one of the most prominent voices from Western nations countering nationalist movements of the kind represented by the Brexit campaign and Trump's policies.

At the Sunday campaign event, Merkel said that Europeans would continue to work in friendship with the US, the UK and others wherever possible, including Russia, but stressed her view that Europeans must be self-reliant.

"We need to know that we have to fight for our own future and destiny as Europeans," Merkel said. She went on to express solidarity with the UK against terror, following a deadly attack at a concert in Manchester, England, last week. If her party is successful in German elections this fall, Merkel would stand for a fourth term as chancellor. Merkel closed out her Munich speech drinking a mug of beer surrounded by supporters doing the same.
In a speech in Munich, Angela Merkel says that Europe must not rely on its former allies.