<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Just a few years ago, Germany referred to the U.S. as its &#8220;most important friend&#8221; outside of Europe. But in the latest campaign program by Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s conservatives the term &#8220;friend&#8221; has been replaced with &#8220;partner.&#8221; ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The upcoming election is on September 24 and Merkel&#8217;s program slogan is &#8220;For a Germany in which we live well and happily,&#8221; where the U.S.has been downgraded from friend to &#8220;most important partner&#8221; outside of Europe.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">This change just proves how the relationship between the U.S. and Germany has slowly started to deteriorate.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">President Donald Trump has made it clear that he disapproved of how Merkel handled the migrant crisis by claiming that the chancellor was &#8220;ruining&#8221; Germany and that her open-door migration policies were &#8220;insane.&#8221; ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Those aren&#8217;t the only issues Trump has been critical of. Trump has also condemned Germany for its trade surplus with the U.S., while also accusing Berlin of owing &#8220;massive amounts of money&#8221; to NATO. ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Germany, on the other hand, disapproves of Trump&#8217;s recent move to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;The new CDU/CSU election programme also repeats a line that Merkel used in a speech in Munich in late May after a difficult summit of G7 leaders, where Trump resisted pressure from six other nations to stay in the Paris agreement,&#8221; writes <em>Reuters. ;</em></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;The times in which we could fully rely on others are, to a certain extent, in the past. We Europeans must take our fate into our own hands more decisively than we have in the past,&#8221; the program reads.&#8221;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Today, the majority of German citizens have a negative connotation about the U.S. According to a recent Pew Research survey, only 35% of Germans have a favorable view of the U.S. ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">While tensions between Germany and the U.S. increase, Merkel plans to &#8220;reinvigorate the friendship&#8221; with France. ;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Author&#8217;s note:</strong> This frosty relationship with Germany seems to be the direct result of Trump&#8217;s demands that Germany pay its fair share in NATO and that trade surpluses get reduced. Merkel caved to Trump&#8217;s demands, so maybe this change of narrative is to make Merkel appear stronger and more independent.</p>