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Germany's new conservative Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he would call on Trump administration officials to stop interfering in German politics.
"I did not intervene in the American election campaign and did not take sides for one or the other," Merz told public broadcaster ZDF in a television interview.
"I would like to encourage and urge the American government to leave German domestic politics to Germany and to stay largely aloof from these partisan considerations," he added.
After Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency last week classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a "proven" extremist organization, the AfD received support from some of Trump's top cabinet members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called the decision "masked tyranny."
Merz, in his television interview, called that comment an "absurd statement" and suggested he may choose to raise the issue in a planned call with US President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Asked whether he would speak to Trump using charm or direct words, Merz said he would "openly represent" German and European positions.
“Together, we are even bigger than the US,” Merz said, speaking of the European Union. He added that “the number of consumers here is bigger than in America and Canada combined. So we have something to offer here. We can do something. We are united, to a large extent anyway, and that will be my message to the American government.”
Merz said he will meet Trump in person for the first time at the NATO summit in The Hague in June. To coordinate a common European defense strategy ahead of that meeting, Merz will travel to Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday to meet with his counterparts.
During his campaign, Merz vowed that Germany, under his leadership, would play a bigger role on the European stage. But an embarrassing initial failure to become chancellor on Tuesday in the Bundestag highlighted his relative political weakness and small parliamentary majority in the country, potentially hampering his ability to follow through on campaign promises.
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