On Thursday morning, an Afghan refugee deliberately plowed a car in a crowd in Munich, motivated by what the police called an “Islamist orientation”. A 2 -year -old girl and her mother were killed and nearly 40 other people were injured.
A day later – in a country where migration was a major electoral problem – this attack was no longer the biggest news in the city.
German information media and a large part of the country’s political leaders have plunged to a deeper In a blizzard of foreign policy statements from the Trump administration while Western leaders met during the Munich security conference.
The annual rally, which ended on Sunday, left many Germans who attended the merger that the Trump team was trying to influence the vote in the next parliamentary elections By publicly doing German politicians to block a far -right party from the government.
German leaders have left Munich deeply worried about the country’s relations with the United States while the Trump administration seemed to be the fringe of Europe by substantial discussions on a peace plan for Ukraine, at least for the ‘Instant.
The attack on the news of the conference made a jump by Mr. Trump and his policies in the center of the last week of the German campaign, diverting part of the attention of questions such as the series of deadly attacks carried out by the Immigrants and refugees across the country in the last year.
The main article on the first page of the biggest Munich newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, presented a photo of the vice-president JD Vance on Saturday, a speech criticizing the Europeans who amazed the participants at the conference. “Non -divromatic announcement,” read the title.
In the speech, Mr. Vance urged German leaders to authorize the alternative to the right to Germany to enter the federal government, without mentioning any of the reasons why the traditional parties avoided governance, including that Some of its members were convicted of having used Nazi slogans.
The first page of Süddeutsche Zeitung also included an image of the attack site, but the accompanying article was in the newspaper. Other German media have been filled with stories about the appearance of the appearance of Mr. Vance and other movements of the Trump administration in Munich.
The coverage reported a clear change: until this weekend, the American president was a concern for many Germans. But he hadn’t really been a problem in the race for the Chancellor.
He’s now.
We do not know which party, if necessary, could benefit from the new concentration on Mr. Trump. The actions of his administration have given platforms to several leading parts. These include an alternative for Germany, known as the AFD, which received what the German media called a “campaign gift” from Mr. Vance in his Friday speech.
But they also include outgoing social democrats and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who are a third or a fourth distant from the ballot boxes, but suddenly had the opportunity to project diplomacy on a world and local scene. The same goes for Christian Democrats by the head of voting and their Chancellor candidate, Friedrich Merz.
Mr. Merz and Mr. Scholz spent their time at the Munich conference in publicly saying to Mr. Trump and his team to stay outside German politics.
“There is an elephant in the room here, and the elephant is the transatlantic relationship,” said Mr. Merz on Saturday in response to the question of a Munich panel moderator on peace plans in Ukraine.
The Germans respect the American elections, he said, “and we expect the United States to do the same here.”
The reaction was so strong due to the “deep historical experiences of Germany with fascism,” said Steven E. Sokol, president of the American council of Germany, who attended the conference. “Vance was a shock for the system,” he said.
But Mr. Sokol warned that “it remains to be seen whether the speech has an impact on the results of the next elections”.
The German campaign was relatively short, in particular according to American standards. The first elections were called after the last power coalition broke out in November. After a slow vacation start, the competition really broke out in January.
Until this weekend, candidates have largely focused on migration and the stagnant economy of Germany. The main competitors for the Chancellor, including Mr. Merz and Mr. Scholz, mainly clashed on public spending and loans, energy policy and the best way to revise migration laws to manage millions of asylum seekers who have entered Germany over the past decade.
The first great upheaval of the race came last month, when an Afghan immigrant who was to be expelled – and who said that the police suffered from mental illness – used a knife to kill a toddler in a Bavar park to intervene. The killings intervened shortly after a Saudi immigrant who worked as a doctor in Germany killed six people on a Christa market in Magdeburg by driving his car in a crowd, and after other knife attacks last year .
Mr. Merz, breaking a taboo several decades, quickly pushed a set of bill for migration to a vote in Parliament, knowing that they could only pass with Votes from AFD. Demonstrations followed through Germany against giving AFD such a opening, but Mr. Merz emerged unscathed in the polls.
Even before the change of attention to Trump, the political race had remained remarkably static. However, there is a potential for a dramatic swing in the last days. A third of the Germans told the pollsters that they could change their minds before election day – either change your party or choose not to vote at all.
AFD is in second place in polls with just over 20% support, well behind Christian Democrats. He obtained a few support points in December, a trend that started before attacking the Christmas market, but largely lineed during the new year. Recent election I showed him about the share of the voices he had a year ago, despite the very publicized approval which he recently obtained from Elon Musk, billionaire of Mr. Trump.
It will take a few days for polls to take the first measure of the effects of the last attack in Munich and outlined at the Munich conference.
However, it was clear that Trump’s news at the conference had immediately spread to German politics. The best German political figures have rewritten their speeches or their panel remarks to include pointed refutation to Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump. AFD candidate for Chancellor Alice Weidel was the only one to celebrate Mr. Vance’s remarks and Trump administration.
Before diving into his expanded borrowing plans and expenditure, Mr. Scholz reprimanded Mr. Vance for having said to Europeans “there is no room for firewalls” in their policy, a reference to traditional parties avoided AFD. “We will not accept foreigners working in our democracy,” said the Chancellor.
He added: “It is not appropriate, especially not with friends and allies.”
The candidate currently leading the race, Mr. Merz, used his appearance of his panel on Saturday to defend German restrictions on the speech of hatred by pushing Mr. Vance, who said that it was time for Europeans to stop the speech police. He also did everything possible for Ding Ding Mr. Trump’s Trade Policies, including threats to new prices on Europe.
Mr. Merz tried to get started as a future potential against Mr. Trump in Europe, a message that seemed to be addressed as much to German voters as to diplomats of the conference.
“I fully agree with all those who demand more leadership in Germany,” said Mr. Merz. “And I’m ready to do it.”
Steven Erlanger Contributed reports.
