GENEVA

The leader of Germany's largest opposition party, Friedrich Merz, has not ruled out talks with France and the UK on sharing nuclear weapons.

Merz, the leading candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said in an interview with the public broadcaster ZDF on Friday: “We have to be prepared for the fact that Donald Trump will no longer accept the NATO treaty's promise of assistance without restrictions.”

“And that's why, I think, it's important that the Europeans now really make the greatest effort to be able to at least defend the European continent on their own,” he added.

Merz emphasized that Germany “must talk to the British and the French, to both European nuclear powers, about the question of whether nuclear sharing, at least the nuclear security from Great Britain and France, could not also be claimed for us.”

This is an issue, the CDU leader continued, “which the French government has in fact addressed to German governments on several occasions and which has always remained unanswered by German governments.”

At the same time, Merz referred to the question of who has the final say on the possible use of nuclear weapons.

“We need to talk to each other about what this could look like, and of course, the question of the final decision is always an important decision, i.e., who holds the suitcase, so to speak.”

According to the CDU politician, the question of whether Europe needs to become more independent when it comes to nuclear weapons “has been discussed among foreign and security policy experts for many years.”

However, this discussion has not yet been “sufficiently discussed in the political world.”

A new parliament will be elected in Germany this Sunday. According to the latest polls, Merz's CDU is at around 30% and would therefore be the strongest political force in Germany.