News blog about US politics
Merz comments on the new US security strategy
Updated on December 9, 2025 – 4:18 p.mReading time: 28 minutes
Merz warns the USA of increasing isolation. The Supreme Court is apparently facing a far-reaching decision. All developments in the news blog.
There has recently been significantly more demand for staff in the USA. The number of job vacancies rose to 7.67 million in October, the US Department of Labor announced on Tuesday in its monthly survey. For this report, known under the acronym “Jolts,” experts polled by Reuters had expected a noticeable decline to 7.15 million from 7.658 million in September.
The data comes shortly before the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday. Its monetary policy should not only ensure stable prices, but also keep an eye on the labor market. This has recently sent out some signals of weakness. The Fed is therefore likely to decide to lower its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point – as in September and October – to a range of 3.5 to 3.75 percent.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has objected to the European policy statements in the US government’s new security strategy. “Some of it is unacceptable for us from a European perspective,” said Merz on Tuesday in Mainz, referring to the document from Washington. “I don’t see any need for the Americans to want to save democracy in Europe. If it could be saved, we would be able to do that on our own.”
Merz warned the USA of increasing isolation and offered Germany’s partnership. “In my conversations with Americans, I say: ‘America first is fine,’ but ‘America alone’ cannot be in your interest.” His message to the USA is rather: “You also need partners in the world, and one of the partners can be Europe. And if you can’t do anything with Europe, then at least make Germany your partner,” said Merz during his inaugural visit to Rhineland-Palatinate.
The US security strategy confirms his assessment “that we in Europe and therefore also in Germany must become much more independent of the USA in terms of security policy,” said Merz. The Europeans would have to prepare for the fact that the USA would no longer be available as an ally. He is convinced “that we have a common goal: namely the preservation of freedom, security and peace on our continent,” said Merz. “And I hope that the Americans will follow us on this path,” he added. “If things are different, we should at least be mentally and one day actually prepared for it,” said the Chancellor. “We can see in our defense spending today that Germany is preparing for this eventuality.”
