Chancellor Merz postpones telephone call with US President Trump

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has postponed a telephone call with US President Donald Trump planned for this Wednesday. The conversation was supposed to be about the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA, as government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in Berlin. The spokesman did not give a reason for the postponement, but he indicated that it was not due to scheduling conflicts.

The government spokesman did not want to comment on whether there might be a connection with Trump's statements about the AfD election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. Kornelius merely referred to the Chancellor's statements in the past: Merz had often pointed out in an "abstract manner" that "interventions or comments on the German domestic political situation, especially during elections," were "out of the question" for him.

US President Trump had previously caused discontent within the ranks of the German government with an online posting. In it he congratulated the AfD on its election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. On his Truth Social platform, he wrote: "Wow, the populist party in Germany had a really big night." He concluded his text with the abbreviation "MGGA!!!" - which “Make Germany Great Again” probably means.

The US President did not specifically name the AfD, but the relevance of his message was clear. The party and its supporters are fed up with the “absolutely terrible immigration rules,” Trump wrote. "They're on the rise and they're not going to take it anymore." On election evening, Trump had already posted a screenshot of the ARD projections for the election in Saxony-Anhalt on Truth Social.

It is considered very unusual for heads of state and government of democratic countries to comment on regional elections in other countries. The US government under Trump had already expressed sympathy for the AfD on several occasions.

Trump's statement was met with opposition in the federal government. "We Germans decide for ourselves how we deal with migration and also who we vote for," said the Federal Government's Transatlantic Coordinator, Metin Hakverdi (SPD), to the Tagesspiegel. “We don’t need advice from the White House.”

The parliamentary director of the SPD, Dirk Wiese, was also outraged: "This interference is unacceptable. I don't think we as the federal government can put up with that."