Overview
- CSU parliamentary leader Alexander Hoffmann urged Germany to press ahead with a European nuclear protection arrangement alongside France and the United Kingdom.
- Germany is not a nuclear-weapon state but participates in NATO nuclear sharing by providing aircraft that could carry U.S. bombs stored on German soil in wartime.
- Hoffmann said any effort would require agreement among the three major European powers: Germany, France and the UK.
- The call revives Emmanuel Macron's 2020 offer to cooperate on European nuclear deterrence, which drew little enthusiasm from Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz.
- CDU leader Friedrich Merz remains open to talks but says operational cooperation is a very long-term task with no new initiatives, as Jens Spahn presses for a German leadership role in the debate.