According to IntelliNews, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron in calling for Europe to restart relations with Russia.
Merz has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine, but now he says he considers Russia to be “a European country” and expressed hope for the restoration of relations between Berlin and Moscow, Die Welt reported on January 15.
“Russia is a European country,” Merz said, speaking at a New Year’s reception at the Halle-Dessau Chamber of Commerce. He then expressed hope for a rebalancing of relations with Moscow.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni added her voice to calls by European leaders to start direct talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine on January 9. She called for unity, so Putin can’t take advantage and divide them.
Her call follows French President Emmanuel Macron’s last week. He said that Europe should reestablish diplomatic relations and engage directly with the Kremlin to bring the four-year-old war to an end.
Russia is willing and interested.
Trump said in an interview on January 14 that Zelensky was the main obstacle to closing a peace deal…, Reuters reports. He had said recently that Moscow was the biggest impediment.
He might be referirng to facts such as the following. Mr. Zelensky won’t agree to give up any land, won’t hold elections, and demands Ukraine be included in NATO or have equivalent security guarantees of Article 5. And the list goes on.
Ukrainian President Zelensky must get to the negotiating table.
The Impetus: Germany’s Energy Crisis
Daily Caller reports that Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz is finally conceding that shutting down the country’s nuclear power plants was a costly mistake.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted Wednesday that the country’s nuclear phase-out was a “serious strategic mistake.” He told business leaders that the country no longer has sufficient energy generation capacity.
Speaking to the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Merz said Germany — which still aims to reach “net-zero767182_EN.pdf)” emissions by 2045 — is now paying the price of the decision through higher costs and heavy government intervention.
If they wanted net zero, they should have kept their nuclear energy. When I last visited Germany, I was impressed by its abundant, clean-energy, nuclear-powered plants. There is nothing cleaner. than nuclear power.
They were a successful industrial nation, and then they de-industrialized for an unproven science pushed by communists who wanted to destroy capitalism and other extremists.
“It was a serious strategic mistake to phase out nuclear energy … we simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity,” Merz said, according to Brussels Signal.
“To have acceptable market prices for energy production again, we would have to permanently subsidise energy prices from the federal budget,” Merz said, adding, “We can’t do this in the long run.”
🇩🇪 Not that long ago Germany celebrated blowing up & decommissioning all their Nuclear Power Stations & shutting down all their coal fire power stations.
Now this week, German Chancellor Merz admits they have an energy crisis and wants to re-establish relations with Russia so… pic.twitter.com/vJrEtI25ZM
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) January 17, 2026
