For German chancellor Angela Merkel, American president Donald Trump’s Paris agreement withdrawal has changed the climate of bilateral relations with Berlin.
Delivering a staggering series of digs in a four-minute statement on Friday, she described his decision as “extremely regrettable”, adding “and that’s putting in mildly”.
Greenpeace Germany was less restrained, mocking Trump's Twitter tone in a projection on to the American embassy: "#TotalLoser, so sad!" Not to be outdone, the Berliner Kurier tabloid's front page read: "Earth to Trump: F**k You!"
Merkel was a little more subtle, saying she was “moved and enthused” by the number of groups, countries and companies, “above all in the US”, that had renewed their commitment to the agreement in light of the Trump decision.
Merkel warned Washington that undermining two decades of climate talks is is not just politics for her: it's personal
“To all who care about future of our planet, let us continue together so that we are successful for Mother Earth,” she said, getting in a second dig.
Unlike Donald Trump, the German leader is a political veteran. She cut her teeth as Germany’s environment minister in the 1990s and chaired talks that led to agreement on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. On Friday she insisted its Paris successor was a good deal that would bring prosperity for all participants. And she warned Washington that undermining two decades of climate talks is is not just politics for her: it’s personal.
“There is no doubt the path is stony, something I’ve experienced repeatedly since I began in politics,” said Merkel, her voice quavering. “But what we began over 20 years ago, and what we agreed in Paris 18 months ago in a historic quantum leap – this will lead to success.”
Undependable US
Her climate-change arguments were an echo of her remarks on Europe five days earlier. On Sunday she called on EU members to view the erratic US president as a wake-up call: the continent could no longer “fully depend on others” and needed to use the new reality as an incentive to “take its fate in its own hands”.
On Friday she applied a similar logic to climate protection, saying those who believed in the “indispensable” Paris climate deal should use Trump’s decision as impetus to take into their hands the fate, not just of Europe, but of the planet as a whole.
Merkel’s rhetoric has spread to other European capitals. On Wednesday this week the European Commission, acting in light of Trump’s Nato waverings and warnings, will agree a new discussion paper demanding renewed efforts at closer European defence co-operation.
Echoing Merkel's beer tent language, the paper warns: "The era in which the Europeans could take care exclusively of soft security is over."
Although a Merkel spokesman insisted that the German leader remained a “committed Atlanticist”, and that the transatlantic relationship remained intact, Berlin officials recall how Merkel made only a conditional promise of close co-operation with the Trump administration “on the basis of shared values”.
If those shared values are up for discussion – such as Nato mutual defence, or international climate agreements – then, they say, it is merely stating the obvious that new instabilities exist. In the postwar era, the crucial US-Europe relationship has only been able to tolerate one unstable partner at a time – almost always Europe. If the US is now no longer the dependable one, the logic is that Europe has to steady itself and find new partners.
Not just the beer
Even taking into account Germany’s looming election season, the chancellor’s robust rhetoric added an extra layer of anticipation to back-to-back Berlin visits of the Indian and Chinese prime ministers, Narendra Modi and Li Keqiang.
On Thursday Merkel said it was "very pleasing" that China stood to its climate commitments
These bilateral government consultations were long-planned, but Merkel embraced the occasion to reiterate her concerns about unreliable, absent partners – in case anyone thought her beer-tent remarks were the beer talking.
On Wednesday she praised India’s “very intensive and very engaged” implementation of the international climate agreement. On Thursday she said it was “very pleasing” that China stood to its climate commitments.
The compliments were mutual. Modi told Merkel he was “always very impressed by the breadth of your experience and vision”. Noting the “quantum leap” in German-Indian business ties, he added with a twinkle: “We are practically made for each other.”
A day later, alongside her Beijing visitor, Merkel noted how China was now Germany’s most important trade partner, while Li praised “stable and mature” bilateral relations.
Whether egging on fellow Europeans or holding considerate press conferences with Indian and Chinese visitors, the difference could not have been more different to Trump’s Twitter campaign against “very bad” Germany.
With the word “pivot” hanging in the air, Merkel emerged to deliver Friday’s chilly warning to Trump on climate change, saying: “Nothing can and nothing will hold us back.”