How Anglophile is Friedrich Merz?

Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz at the G7 Summit in Canada. Img: Number 10, CC BY 2.0

Friedrich Merz is in London today for his first official visit to the UK as German Chancellor. There will no doubt be a lot of cynicism about this on social media and elsewhere, but I’m quite excited. It seems to me that there is a genuine chance for a reset of relations here. Merz may not be an outright Anglophile, but he has time and empathy for Britain in a way his predecessor never did.

At first glance, the meeting today may not look dramatic. Merz and the British PM Keir Starmer already know each other and have also met elsewhere since both have taken office. Merz has also chosen to conduct other inaugural visits first, notably to France and Poland, both on 7 May, within a day of becoming Chancellor. But Ukraine, the US and Italy also took priority.

However, this doesn’t detract from the potential of today's visit to mark the start of new UK-German relations post-Brexit. The two leaders will sign a bilateral friendship treaty, marking the first such agreement between them since the end of the Second World War. Each has a treaty with France, and this will complete the “triangle” between London, Paris and Berlin as a Foreign Office representative put it in a briefing earlier this week.

I cannot disclose much about the treaty at this point because I don’t know when and how much of it will be revealed today. But I was impressed with what I saw – specific enough to be more than just good intentions, yet high-level enough to (hopefully) survive changing governments for the foreseeable future.

I was pleased to see that there is a lot on defence cooperation. By contrast, Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, once managed to write an entire essay setting out his vision for the global order after the Russian invasion of Ukraine without mentioning the UK, which, together with France, is one of just two nuclear powers in Europe. Britain was literally a blind spot on Scholz’s map of the world.

In part, this was due to an almost sulky response to Brexit. Whatever one may personally think of Britain’s exit from the EU, it was brought about by a referendum and is a political reality. The rational response would have been to make an effort to understand why this happened and then work towards reshaping relations between two of the world's largest economies. Instead, the reactions on both sides were marred by stereotypes, unfunny jokes, and ultimately, a breakdown of goodwill.

It wasn’t just the leadership on both sides, to be fair. Unhelpful behaviour and attitudes reached all the way down. I was appalled to see British travellers in German airports being jeered by staff who pointed to the long queues at passport control and literally shouted “ha, ha, Brexit!” at them. Vice versa, there seemed to have been political pressure in the UK for diplomats and civil servants to be seen to be tough “on Europe”. The level of mutual distrust behind the scenes was worrying.

I’m reasonably hopeful that Merz and Starmer can drive a different course. For one thing, they have better working conditions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the re-election of Donald Trump as US President have put things into perspective for many Europeans. They face similar challenges and must work together to find solutions. A trope that has been overused but is nonetheless true is that Britain left the EU, not Europe.

I think Merz understands what Scholz found difficult to accept: Germany and Britain both have huge roles to play in defending the entire region. Those roles are different: Britain is a nuclear power, Germany is not. Germany is in the centre of Europe, Britain on its Western reaches. Germany has the potential to build a large land army as well as the industrial capability to boost arms production. Britain has longstanding military expertise and traditions it can draw on. The list could go on, but the point is clear: they need to talk to each other (as well as other European countries) to coordinate defence and security efforts.

Merz has also shown more interest in understanding Brexit than his predecessor. In an interview with the Financial Times last year, he admitted that “the continental Europeans were not entirely blameless when it came to Brexit,” adding, “we lost patience with the special role that Britain always played in European politics. We didn’t do enough to help them come to a different referendum result.” Agree with this or not, but Merz has clearly at least done some thinking here and is willing to reach out.

Pressing for tighter relations between Berlin and London, he argued that “we have a plethora of opportunities, at least in foreign and defence policy, that we should explore together,” and that “we Germans have a huge strategic interest in keeping the UK closely engaged in Europe.” Part of this should also involve cultural, political, and educational exchange.

Since the FT and others have already leaked some of the treaty details for today, I don’t think I’m revealing too much when I say that easier visas for school exchanges will be part of the deal, as well as other measures intended to lower hurdles for travel. I’m also quite excited about the prospect of London-to-Berlin trains, which have been on the list.

On a personal level, Merz’s English is excellent. So much so that Trump complimented him on it and asked if he spoke English and German equally well. I think we have a tendency these days to underestimate the impact of personal relations between leaders. If Merz can speak with Starmer directly rather than through interpreters, then there is huge value in that.

Merz has never lived outside of Germany, but he is very widely travelled given his business background. He’s often regarded as a classic transatlanticist with close ties to the US, a country he has visited over 100 times by his own reckoning, but I think having had the experience of getting out of Germany and out of German politics for a few years will also be beneficial for his relations with Britain.

We’ll see what happens today. Merz is no outright Anglophile. His personal ties to the US and France will remain closer than those to Britain. But he has a strong interest in foreign policy, believes in shared Western values and appears to have enough intercultural competence to engage with the domestic situation in friendly countries. That’s enough to keep my Anglo-German soul optimistic for now.

My hopes are relatively high that today might mark the start of closer UK-German relations, beyond mere symbolism and pleasant words.