Friday, February 8, 2019

85 Percent Of Germans See U.S-German Ties As Negative

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the White House Oval Office in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Reuters: Nicht gut: Nearly 85 percent of Germans see U.S-German ties as negative

BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly 85 percent of Germans have a negative or very negative view of U.S.-German relations, and most want to put more distance between the traditionally close transaltantic allies, a new poll showed on Friday.

Just over 40 percent of those polled view China as a better partner for Germany than the United States, the survey of around 5,000 people, conducted by Atlantik-Bruecke and the Civey institute in poll in November and December, showed.

Ties between the United States and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, have been strained since the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized Germany repeatedly for its trade practices, defense spending and its participation in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Germany has sought to maintain friendly ties with the United States, but senior leaders speak publicly about an erosion of trust after Washington’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, and most recently, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

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WNU Editor: U.S. - German relations have been going downhill for the past 15 years, starting with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. And if anyone bothers to read the German press today (Spiegel Online, DW, etc.), the message is consistently critical of U.S. policies. Unfortunately, the Germans are making the situation worse by pulling stunts like this .... US Outraged Over Germany's Transfer Of Terrorist Who Killed Americans To Turkey (Zero Hedge). My prediction for the future. After the U.S. and China resolve their trade differences, the next U.S. trade target will be the EU, specifically Germany. This 85% negative view will probably climb to 100%.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is Merkel on this confrontation course? Is it still the influence Obama (he was her strongest ally, almost friends) exercts over her? Why the f*** is Germany at 85% negativity to the US? Germany owes the US a lot.. Marshall plan, anyone? People never learn.. Merkel's closeness to Putin is so suspicious..

B.Poster said...

As an American, I can say with pretty near certainty that the feeling is mutual regarding ties with Germany. In other words, at least 85% of Americans view German-US ties negatively. In fact, the percentage might even be higher.

Anonymous said...

Yes the turn away from the Atlantic Alliance has been a long term project of Germany but it gained strength with Merkel. She turned her back on Germany's military role in NATO by under-funding her own military to the point it has little to offer NATO, other than soil for American troops.

Second she forged ever closer energy ties to Russia, to the exclusion of the US. Her officials sneer at American attempts to market LNG to Germany, while applauding Russian deals.

Merkel has fought hard against any trade concessions to the US, with the obvious one to ease tensions being dismissed outright, purchasing large quantities of American LNG.

Merkel is now a strong supporter of an EU defense force and EU alternatives to SWIFT.

Merkel has driven hard to have an EU foreign policy that attempts to subvert American national interests in the the Middle East. Why does that matter? Because American guarantees Germany's survival.

All of these decisions are decoupling Germany from the transatlantic alliance.

I predict in the 2020's Germany and France will do what De Gaulle did in 1966, withdraw from NATO's military organization. Trump gets the blame for weakening NATO but there is no evidence for it, plenty of it pointing to Angela Merkel undermining NATO.

Anonymous said...

Exactly. The swift thing was such a stab in the back. So while all this putin puppet nonsense goes on in the US - blaming one of the most American guys ever to work for Russia- in Germany you actually have someone working a lot with Russia and she was buddy buddy with Obama. In fact if u recollect, Obama named her (Merkel) to be his closest international partner and he did say that many times on record. He praised her nonstop and she was one of the most frequent visitors to the white house. But in reality she's completely sabotaging the US right now, weakening the EU alliance, had a million refugees come to Germany what they did not want or support. And remember when Putin brought the dog to the meeting between her (Merkel) and himself (Putin)? He knows Merkel is terrified of dogs. What was going on there? She's completely his bitch and works so obviously for Putin but we are told that Trump, the guy who's so American he had wrestling roles, and people wanted to be like him from rappers to politicians (hillary was so eager to be his friend and get donations etc)..the guy who made Nato by 100bn stronger. .that guy works for Putin. Not the left on cnn who tells us to have socialism. Got it.