Entire world eyes the US presidential election. It has the potential to impact not only US relations with countries but also their domestic political fabric. Germany is having a close look at the US elections. The relation between the two countries has deteriorated over the last few years under Trump administration.
The leadership of the two countries has stark personal and political differences. They are poles apart in their approach to handling top global issues including climate change and pandemic containment. There is an inbuilt anti-European sentiment in Trump leadership. Trump has hampered the communication channel between the two countries.
The population of the two countries also share their own set of differences. Polls show that a majority of German population disapproves of Donald Trump to prefer Joe Biden.
Merkel and Trump are poles apart
Angela Merkel is a physicist and Trump is a businessman. Trump is known for his outspoken and abrasive nature. Merkel on the hand is a calm and composed leader.
Germany, under Merkel, is immigration friendly and sensitive towards climate change. Trump’s hostility towards immigrants has earned him foes in his own country. He has been blatant in denying the catastrophe of human inflicted climate change. Germany has shown great caution in its approach to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has turned his defiance of the pandemic as his prime tool to polarise voters in his favour.
The political class of Germany is desperately looking for a shift of power from Trump. It has close ties with the United States. The country is facing difficulties in keeping pace with the Trump administration policy approach.
People to people ties still intact
A survey by the research body, Civey shows that merely 13% of German population wants Trump to be reelected to the post of President.
The same percentage is the composition of the population supporting the extremely rightist political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party is a fringe element in Germany, limited to certain pockets of the country but its supporters are seeing a surge in recent years. The party starkly opposes the government’s liberal stance on immigration.
The nostalgia of America-Germany ties of around a quarter-century has not faded away from the memory of the German population. They still live with an amicable perception of each other. The golden age of the relations between the United States and Germany still resides in the memory of Germans.
Longstanding friendship
It all started after the second world war when the United States promised land of freedom and growth. It became home for millions of destitute Germans, where they could live the life of prosperity. America-Germany relations grew like anything in the presidency of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
The United States also engineered the German unity in 1990. The relation between the two countries has seen a dipping point in the Trump administration. Its fate is directly linked to the leader who will win the presidency in the election. While hundreds of millions of Americans cast their ballot, Germany was holding its nerve too.
The future of the Green Deal
Germans are finding new political grounds and allegiances as an alternative to Trump coalition. They are trying to shift their foreign policy towards a more European perspective, going farther from America. European countries like France are leading the efforts towards controlling climate change.
Joe Biden has expressed his resolve towards making the United States climate-neutral by the year 2050. This has sparked some hope in environment-sensitive German class. Deutsche Welle reported Franziska Brantner, the top Green Party parliamentarian, saying that Biden’s resolve will foster the implementation of Paris Climate Agreement. Brantner is optimistic about a trans-Atlantic Green Deal under Biden. The lawmaker explored the possibility of joint investment in technology and formulating common standards concerning carbon emissions.
