“Everything must be prepared now,” he added, while also emphasizing “we are ready to find solutions. We are extending our hand, but we are not prepared to be blackmailed.”
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office had announced Sunday that France would ask the EU to activate the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, nicknamed the trade bazooka.
Germany is usually more reluctant to take such far-reaching measures, not least to protect its ailing and export-dependent economy. But Klingbeil’s latest comments signal a willingness to take a harder line with Washington — at least on the part of his Social Democrats, that govern in a coalition government with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives.
“We are constantly experiencing new provocations. We are constantly experiencing new antagonism, which President Trump is seeking. And here we Europeans must make it clear that the limit has been reached,” Klingbeil said.
All eyes are now on Merz, who will speak to journalists later on Monday and has in the past been more conciliatory toward the Trump administration than the center-left vice chancellor.