Angela Merkel tells Germans: We can no longer 'completely depend' on Brexit UK

Angela Merkel - Picture credit: PA

Angela Merkel has said Germany can no longer “completely depend on” Britain and America after the Brexit referendum and election of Donald Trump. 

The German chancellor said last week’s G7 and Nato summits had convinced her that Europeans must “take our fate into our own hands”.

Trump publicly admonished other members of Nato for not spending more on defence at the meeting, while he did not mention the alliance’s mantra of collective defence and continued to cast doubt on whether the US would remain signed up to the Paris climate change treaty.

Speaking to supporters in Bavaria, Merkel, who faces her own election later this year, emphasised the need for closer collaboration with other EU leaders like Emmanuel Macron.

“The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days,” she said.

“And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must truly take our fate into our own hands – of course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbours wherever that is possible also with other countries, even with Russia. But we need to know we must fight for our own future, as Europeans, for our destiny.”

Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit President Trump after his inauguration at the start of this year.

Tim Farron said Merkel’s comments were the “inevitable outcome” of the Prime Minister cosying up to the White House.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, a vote for the Liberal Democrats can change Britain’s future and we can avoid this extreme Brexit that Theresa May is pursuing, with the full support of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party,” the Liberal Democrat leader continued.