Germany Has a New Center-Right Chancellor

The conservative Friedrich Merz was sworn in last week as Germany’s Chancellor, after his center-right bloc of parties formed a coalition government with the leading center-left party that had led the previous government. Merz’s Christian Democrats and their conservative Bavarian allies had won the most votes and seats in the parliamentary elections a month ago, but were short of a majority. By forming a coalition with the center-left, the conservatives thereby are keeping the main far-right (neo-Nazi) anti-migrant pro-Russian party out of power. The new Chancellor is pro-European Union and pro-Ukrainian. After long favoring the transatlantic alliance with the United States, Merz advocates for greater European self-reliance and stronger security, particularly through the EU, for which Germany has the largest economy and thus to which the central European State is its largest contributor, because of the unreliability of the Trump Administration. Germany is an ally of the U.S. as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Germany joins Poland, Austria and the EU in being governed by a center-right party leading a coalition that kept out both the far right and far left, despite gains in votes for their populist candidates, as the majority of voters opposes the two extremes.

Foreign Digest: China, Canada, Australia, Romania, and Nicaragua

China: Communist China recently seized a Vietnamese-claimed island in the Spratley Islands in the South China Sea. The islands are contested by several Asian States. China, which illegally claims the South China Sea, has been assertive in its territorial claims to the Spratleys. It had already seized the Paracel Islands, which were claimed by Vietnam. Chinese forces yesterday also violated the airspace and territorial waters of Senkaku, a Japanese island claimed by China, even surveilling it with a helicopter, to which Japan issued a diplomatic protest. Canada: Canada’s conservative party lost the Canadian parliamentary elections a week ago, after having led the polls at the start of the election campaign a few weeks ago because of Donald Trump’s disrespectful pressure to force Canada to join the American Union and his unnecessary imposition of tariffs on Canadian exports to America. The ruling center-left party, which won the most votes and seats, will continue to govern Canada, likely in again coalition, as it is slightly short of the necessary majority to govern alone. They were seen by Canadians as more capable of standing up to Trump than the conservative leadership, unlike some of the conservative provincial premiers. The conservative party leader, a Trumpist who broke with the American tycoon over sovereignty and tariffs even lost his own seat. Canada, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been a strong ally of the United States. Australia: The ruling center-left party easily won the most votes and a majority of seats in the Australian parliamentary elections, as Trump’s tariffs weighed heavily against the conservatives, as in Canada. Similarly, the center-right party leader even lost his own seat. Australia is a non-NATO American ally and a member of other pacts with the U.S. Romania: Today, as Romanians began voting in the first round of the rescheduled presidential elections, Russians hacked the election system, causing a temporary delay. As I had posted, a little-known independent pro-Russian candidate won the first round in December without having spent much in campaign funds because of heavy Russian interference. The result was overturned because of the Russian interference and campaign expense irregularities, for which he was charged and banned from running for the presidency, as I had posted. A center-right party’s candidate had come in second, but that party and other conservative parties formed an electoral bloc with the ruling center-left party behind the Prime Minister, whom it is supporting in today’s vote. A different pro-Russian anti-European anti-NATO candidate is expected to win the most votes, but not nearly enough for a majority, thereby necessitating a run-off election among the top two candidates. The run-off is scheduled for May 18. Romania is a NATO ally of the U.S. Nicaragua: Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinista dictatorship is withdrawing from UNESCO because of a freedom of the press prize awarded to the main opposition newspaper, La Prensa (the Press), published in exile. I have posted on the increased repression in the Central American State.

The Trump Administration’s Shameful UN Vote Against Condemning Russian Aggression

A resolution condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine passed the United Nations General Assembly last month with overwhelming support, despite a vote by the United States against it. The resolution, sponsored by Lithuania and Luxembourg , passed 105-9, with 33 abstentions. There was significant support from every continent, especially Europe, the Americas and Western allies generally, and especially from former Soviet Republics and satellites in Europe and other former Communist States. Even pro-Russian Georgia, Hungary, Slovakia voted in favor and even Communist Vietnam and Laos and Marxist Angola, as well as formerly pro-Russian States that have recently turned away from Russia, namely Armenia and Cyprus. There was also significant support from Arab and Muslim States. The abstentions of Communist China and Cuba, Marxist Mozambique and the Central Asian former Soviet Republics were even a noteworthy departure from previous voting patterns. The Trump Administration’s vote against was joined only by a rogue’s gallery: Russia; Belarus, a dictatorship complicit in Russian aggression; Communist North Korea, which has sent arms and troops to Russia; Marxist Nicaragua; Eritrea, one of the most repressive States in the world; and Sudan, Mali and Niger, all led by military juntas that seized power in coups, the latter two of which are pro-Russian. Trump’s excuse for the shameful vote against a resolution upholding the most fundamental aspect of the UN Charter defending independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity against aggression, was to avoid being seen as favoring the Ukrainians while trying to mediate peace with Russia. But the excuse is contradicted by its strong diplomatic support of Israel at the UN while trying to mediate peace in the Holy Land. The Trump Administration, though not favoring Russian aggression, has been unable clearly to articulate opposition to it as a matter of principle and longstanding U.S. foreign policy. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer, is trying to restore the Soviet Union, which was split up in 1991 when its Republics, including Ukraine, became independent, and the Russian Empire. Russia had recognized Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, but invaded in 2014, seizing Crimea and fomenting a separatist rebellion in easter Ukraine and then launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.