Arnon Grunberg

Opponent

Cold

Business as usual?

Stefan Kuzmany in Der Spiegel on Trump and Germany:

'Trump acts quite openly. And now, the American president has turned his attentions toward launching a disinformation campaign against Germany. He is doing so as a way of justifying his morally repugnant refugee policies to the American people.'

(...)

'The world has become worn down by Trump's bluster and used to his constant stream of lunacy. But this numbness shouldn't lead to the normalization and acceptance of his aggressive outrageousness. The claim - leveled without a shred of proof - that the German government and its officials would deliberately keep the true extent of criminality from the citizens of Germany should not go without consequences. His open support for German right-wing populists is nothing less than a blatant attack by a foreign power on this country's government. It is a direct attempt by the White House to destabilize the Federal Republic of Germany.

Angela Merkel has been far too restrained in her reaction to this threat. The chancellor simply responded that the crime figures recently presented by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer speak for themselves. Those statistics show that crime has in fact gone down slightly. And if there is one person in German politics who could never be accused of whitewashing crime statistics, it is Seefhofer, who is currently looking for any excuse possible to take an even harder line on migration.

No, this U.S. president was never a partner. He is a hostile opponent. We should finally start to treat him as such and act accordingly. Summoning the U.S. ambassador for a formal protest would be a good first step. Furthermore, relations to this U.S. government should be reduced to a bare minimum.'

Read the article here.

Mind you, this is not a fringe magazine on the outskirts of society, this still is Der Spiegel, whatever you may think of it.

'A direct attempt by the White House to destabilize the Federal Republic of Germany." If this is not a description of cold war I don't know what cold war is.

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