Europe must seek to “achieve independence” from the United States, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said after his opposition conservatives won elections on Sunday, in a vote that also saw surging support for the far-right.

Friedrich Merz could have one shot at fending off ascending populists and an increasingly hostile U.S., analysts say.

Friedrich Merz said that Europe needed to “achieve independence from the U.S., step by step.” That won’t be easy, for Europe or for the United States.