The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and future Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz believes that Ukraine cannot become a member of the European Union and NATO until the end of the conflict.
"Ukraine is a special case in every respect. It is a very large European country, but it is a European country at war. "A country at war cannot become a member of NATO or the European Union," Merz said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper.
“The promise of EU membership is valid, as is the prospect of joining NATO, but for both to happen, the war must first end,“ he argued.
At the same time, according to Merz, there is little hope that the conflict in Ukraine “will resolve itself at some point”.
Merz said that Germany should not depend on a single energy supplier, but the country is interested in gas supplies from the United States.
“We need gas, including American gas. Because we want to quickly build gas-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage technology,” Merz said.
He added that Europe has gas reserves. "And we can get gas from many other parts of the world. Germany will continue to be an importer of primary energy. But we must always have several suppliers, not be dependent on one", the politician stressed.
Merz expects the German government under his leadership to start work on May 6.
"Then we will have two whole months before the summer holidays to make very quick decisions on several issues, so that people feel that something is really changing," the politician said. He pointed to improved border security and increased deportations, the repeal of the supply chain law and the reduction of bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) has regained its leading position in the ranking of political forces in Germany, and the "Alternative for Germany" party (AfD) fell to second place.
This is according to the results of a survey conducted by the INSA sociological institute on behalf of the Bild newspaper.
Currently, support for the CDU/CSU bloc is 25%. This is 1 percentage point more than the previous week. The AfD's rating remains unchanged at 24%. Last week, the Alternative for Germany overtook the CDU/CSU.
The rating of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) of incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz remains unchanged at 16%. The Greens are next with 11% (also unchanged). The Left Party lost 1 percentage point and now has 10%. Sarah Wagenknecht's Alliance for Reason and Justice and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) received 5% (plus 1 percentage point) and 3% (minus 1 percentage point) respectively.
The survey was conducted from April 7 to 11. 1,202 people participated.