FRICTION

Merkel: Europe Can No Longer ‘Count on Others’

Trump presidency means Europe must learn self-reliance.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said European nations need to learn to rely on themselves in the face of Brexit and U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidency. “We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands,” she said at a campaign event in Bavaria, according to The Independent. While stressing the importance of friendly relations with Britain and the U.S., she said “the times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.” New developments in the world, including Trump’s presidency and Brexit, mean Europeans “have to fight for our own destiny,” she said. Her comments come after a G7 summit in Sicily on Saturday, where Trump called U.S. participation in the 2015 Paris Deal into question, saying he’d need more time to decide whether the U.S. will commit to the pledge to cut carbon emissions. Merkel told reporters after a discussion on the matter that the talks were “very dissatisfying” due to the unanswered question on U.S. involvement.