Volkswacht Bodensee - German opposition leader Merz urges united EU stance on Trump

Merz also said that, should he win the snap general election on February 23, he would seek strong ties with Germany's traditional core EU partner France but also with Poland and Italy, led by far-right premier Giorgia Meloni.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a day after Trump's inauguration, Merz recalled congratulating him in a handwritten letter and said "we should be ready to meet as soon as possible".

But he cautioned that "I would not like to see any European leader go to (Washington) DC without having before tried to coordinate what we are telling them from our European perspective".

With questions on trade, security and other issues looming, he cautioned against EU member countries "popping up there and speaking different languages, everybody only speaking on his own behalf".

Instead, Merz argued the need "to negotiate with the American side from a position of strength".

"Let's work with him and let's figure out where we are having approaches in common," he said, mentioning relations with China as an example.

- 'Position of strength' -

Merz is enjoying a strong poll lead over centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who addressed the Davos forum earlier -- although, if he wins, Merz may yet need Scholz's SPD as a coalition ally.

The conservative CDU leader, a strong supporter of the EU and transatlantic ties, has accused Scholz of neglecting international relations.

Merz also said Germany needed to get Poland "at the table as fast as possible" and praised Meloni of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, who has positioned herself as the closest mainstream European leader to Trump.

"I don't understand the reservations towards her," Merz said. "I think she is very pro-European, she is very clear in her position towards Ukraine and Russia."

"Why don't we talk with her more often than we did in the past?" he added.

Outlining other policy positions, Merz said he would seek to rebuild the German economy by helping companies, lowering energy prices, studying a return to nuclear power, and getting the unemployed off welfare benefits and back into the labour market.

A top priority would be reducing the "big problem" of irregular immigration, he said, adding that this would also help tackle the "challenges coming from the right-wing populists" of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), with whom he vowed to never cooperate.

On the Ukraine war, he pledged strong continued support for Kyiv, stressing that the war "will not come to an end from a position of weakness. It will only come to an end from a position of strength."

O.Schlaepfer--VB