Spanish leader slams Merz for his deference to Trump

BRUSSELS — One week after Donald Trump called the Spanish government “terrible” and threatened to cut trade ties with Madrid, Spain’s leaders remain furious with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for sitting in silence in the Oval Office while the U.S. president delivered his tirade.

In an interview with POLITICO on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz said Merz was among a current crop of EU leaders “who have no idea how to manage the historic moment we’re living in.”

“What Europe needs today is leadership, not vassals who pay homage to Trump,” she said.

Merz has been under fire since clamming up during a March 3 press conference at the White House during which Trump threatened to impose an embargo on Madrid for refusing to allow U.S. military planes to use Spanish air bases to attack Iran, and slammed Spain for its refusal to commit 5 percent of its GDP to military spending.

After the meeting, the chancellor claimed he hadn’t spoken up to defend a fellow EU member because he hadn’t wanted to risk “aggravating” the situation by rebuking Trump in public. He added he’d later told the president behind closed doors that economic sanctions can’t be imposed on a single EU country.

But that spin has done little to soothe tempers in Madrid. In the hours following the Washington meeting, Spanish Foreign Minister José Luis Albares blasted Merz for failing to stand up for a fellow EU member, and said he couldn’t imagine former German chancellors Angela Merkel or Olaf Scholz remaining silent in a similar situation.

The chancellor was also pilloried in Spain’s national press, with pundits labelling Merz a “coward” and newspaper editorials scolding him for “failing to defend a European partner as a basic sense of solidarity would have demanded.”

Tensions? What tensions?

Merz’s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, downplayed the evident discord between the two countries, telling POLITICO on Monday that “the relationship is not tense at all.” He also deflected criticism of Berlin’s handling of the situation and said Germany’s top foreign policy and security official, Günter Sautter, had debriefed his Spanish counterpart immediately after the Trump meeting.

But he conceded that the two leaders haven’t spoken since the chancellor’s visit to Washington. According to Kornelius, Merz has attempted to call Sánchez twice but failed to reach him; he added that the chancellor left the prime minister a voice message and is waiting for a call back.

Contacted by POLITICO, a spokesperson for Sánchez later said Merz’s calls went unanswered because the German chancellor dialed a number that is no longer in service, not realizing that the prime minister changes it periodically for security reasons. While the confusion has since been cleared up and Merz has been given updated contact information, the two leaders haven’t yet spoken, the spokesperson said.

Missed calls aside, the public nature of the spat is unusual given that Madrid and Berlin have historically enjoyed excellent relations, with Spanish prime ministers and German chancellors sharing strong bonds regardless of their political backgrounds.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also insists that the two countries remain close allies, and that Berlin stands with Madrid in the face of Trump’s tariff threats.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Luis Albares blasted Merz for failing to stand up for a fellow EU member. | Luis Soto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“Spain can always count on European solidarity, and thus also on German solidarity, when it comes to threats of new trade barriers,” he said on Thursday. “We stand together in the closest possible unity.”

‘Illegitimate war’

Díaz on Monday expressed confidence that Spanish-German relations would survive the current disharmony, but also emphasized her frustration with the reluctance of Merz and other EU leaders to join Spain in condemning the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iran.

“Article 1 of the United Nations Charter is clear about what defines an illegitimate war,” she said. “Any EU leader should be expected to speak out clearly in defense of international law.”

Merz on Monday reiterated his support for the U.S.-Israeli offensive, citing Iran’s connections to Russia and its longstanding support for militant proxies such as Hamas.

“Iran is the center of international terrorism,” the chancellor told reporters in Berlin. “This center must be shut down, and the Americans and Israelis are doing that in their own way.”

Díaz, who leads the far-left Sumar party, the junior partner in socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government, attributed Merz’s support for Trump’s policies to Germany’s “position of extreme weakness in economic terms,” and said it reflected Europe’s broader overreliance on the United States.

“We need strategic autonomy … we need to have our own European industries,” she said. “And we need to reduce our our technological, financial and energetic dependence on both the United States and Beijing. We need to own our own souls.”

Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.