GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Berlin, June 14, 2026. Two days before the opening of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, Berlin examines the agenda with a mixture of expectation and cold lucidity. The German delegation knows that Friedrich Merz will arrive on the shores of Lake Geneva in an uncomfortable position: a chancellor weakened on the domestic front, carrying a Europe he wants to render "unshakeable," facing a Donald Trump who has already set the tempo for the summit.

Deutsche Welle states it without ambiguity: Germany hopes above all for "movement on Ukraine." Berlin expects concrete signals—a ceasefire timeline, diplomatic momentum—but the agenda appears largely captured by Trump's bilateral meetings with Gulf partners and the Iranian file. Zelensky, present in Evian, has secured only a collective working session, without a separate meeting with Washington. For Berlin, the signal is unequivocal: Ukraine remains a European responsibility.

The transatlantic fracture, meanwhile, is now documented. The Local Germany reports on the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) study spanning 13 EU member states, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom: a majority of Europeans no longer consider the United States an ally, and attribute this directly to Trump. A "new historic low" that, quantified and released on the eve of the G7, increases pressure on Merz to defend an autonomous European line.

In the Bundestag, the Chancellor's government statement, reported by the FAZ, had set the scene: Merz, "unshakeable," says he is only "at the beginning of efforts to build a foundation for the next decade." Tense debates—reforms, Europe, Ukraine, "war of worldviews," constant pressure from the AfD. Merz defends fair burden-sharing among allies, a theme that resonates with Trump's refrain on defense spending.

On the security flank, Tagesschau notes that the summit's immediate surroundings are fortifying: Geneva prepares for a major anti-capitalist "No G7" demonstration, with a massive France-Switzerland cross-border security deployment. For German public opinion, this image—a luxury summit in Evian, a state dinner at Versailles, barricades in Geneva—fuels distrust toward a multilateralism seen as decorative. Berlin therefore arrives without illusions: that the G7 produce at minimum a signal on Ukraine, and that Merz consolidate the European front against a Washington that arbitrates its priorities well beyond the interests of its traditional allies.