As US President Donald Trump took office, the CDU/CSU in Germany now finds itself under pressure to maintain good relations with the US.
According to Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesperson of the Union’s faction, Trump’s inaugural address was primarily a message of determination and inward focus, filled with a sense of mission. “Foreign policy only played a role in so far as it serves the purpose of defending against real and perceived threats” he said to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
Hardt was invited to the inauguration and watched the ceremony in Washington. The main idea of Trump’s speech, he said, is that “everything bad comes from outside”. This means, in his opinion, that “the German government, as well as parts of the public, should get off their high horse”. The US will no longer do favors for Germany in the future. “We should ask ourselves where we can organize a win-win with the US” he said to the RND.