Germany Worried US Election Might Degenerate Into Constitutional Crisis

The German government on Wednesday warned that the United States was facing a “very explosive situation”.

Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that a possible systemic crisis is imminent after President Donald Trump prematurely declared himself winner.

Following Trump’s remarks that he will go to the Supreme Court to stop ballots from being tallied, Kramp-Karrenbauer told public broadcaster ZDF “this election has not been decided… votes are still being counted”.

She said Trump could create “a constitutional crisis in the USA”, calling such a scenario “something that must deeply concern us”.

The minister, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, said it appeared “the battle over the legitimacy of the result, however, it turns out, has begun”.

She admitted that the German-US relationship had faced “a tough test in the past four years” following Trump’s criticism of Berlin over trade and military spending.

However, she said, “this friendship is more than a question of which administration is currently in the White House”, saying she dismissed calls in Germany to “decouple ourselves from the United States”.

Kramp-Karrenbauer stressed that regardless of the ultimate outcome of the US vote, Europe would need to become more self-sufficient.

“We will have to do a lot more for our own interests – both as Germany and in particular with the other Europeans,” she said.

Source: AFP