Welcome to the Euro Intelligence Podcast. I'm Wolfgang Munchau and with me, Susanna

Muncheng and Jack Smith. Today we will talk about Friedrich Mertz, the German Chancellor, who

has had a bit of a rough time, both in his foreign policy and in his domestic policy.

There is talk in Berlin of the coalition breaking down, but our focus will be

here in this podcast on his foreign policy, what he said about Iran, what he said about the United

States, his leadership in Europe. We will also sort of touch on his domestic policy problems,

and it's adding up, I think, sort of to a broader

picture, because the two are not as separate as one might think. So, Jack, what is the significance

of what Merth said last week and Trump's reaction to Merth's troop withdrawal and medium-range missile

decision? Is this to be expected, or is there something else to it?

I think firstly, in terms of the actual significance going forward for Germany's security, well,

not just Germany's security, but also in general, I guess, Western and Central Europe security,

the more important part is the sort of ongoing,

I guess now, like uncertainty over what is going to happen with these medium-range missiles.

So, of course, people who were alive during the Cold War or had studied their history

might remember in the 1980s a lot of controversy within Germany over stationing Pershing missiles,

medium-range pershing missiles in the country. Now, for quite a long time, there haven't been

any medium-range missiles stationed in Germany after the Cold War, but then during the Biden administration,

there was a new commitment after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to station some with a variety

of different ranges in the country. Now, Trump's recent announcement about the troop withdrawal

has also cast doubt on whether that is going to go forward at all. And that is potentially

quite significant because this, we're really talking here about a capability that Europeans by themselves will struggle to, will simply not be able to fill.

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