Merz needs close ties with both the British prime minister and Sánchez. Starmer is an important ally in the “E3” format that Germany, France and the U.K. use to coordinate European strategy toward Ukraine. Sánchez, meanwhile, represents the largest faction within the center-left Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, with whom Merz’s conservatives must reach compromises.
Following his meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Merz said: “There is no way that Spain will be treated particularly badly” on trade as a member of the EU. He also said he had defended Starmer to Trump, telling the president the British leader “is making a really very, very large, very, very valuable contribution in the E3 format to ending the war in Ukraine, and that I consider this criticism of him to be unjustified.”
The key, Merz said, had been not to correct Trump in front of the cameras.
“I did this behind closed doors because, as I said, I did not want to play out the conflict on the open stage there.”
Perhaps the biggest question for Merz, however, is whether the appeasement is working.
Merz’s goal, after all, had been to convince Trump to deescalate his tariff war on Europe and to get the U.S. leader to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin more aggressively with sanctions to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.