Merz Compared Putin to Hitler, Drew Parallels with 1938, and Said What Europe Would Do

Vladimir Putin. Photo: Contributor / Getty Images

Speaking on December 13 at the party conference of his CDU/CSU alliance, Friedrich Merz named the restoration of Germany's competitiveness and defense capability as the main priorities of his government, justifying this with the danger from Russia.

Merz emphasized that Russia's war is not a local conflict happening somewhere far away; in his opinion, it is an open challenge to the entire Western civilization:

"At least since February 24, 2022, we know that everything we have become accustomed to here is no longer a given. There is war in Europe again. And this war is not somewhere far away – a two-hour flight away, in Ukraine. This is a daily attack on all of Europe.

Territorially – against Ukraine, but in all respects also against the European Union, against cohesion in Europe, against our data networks, against our freedom, against our information freedom. Yes, we are not at war, but we no longer live simply in peace."

"By the way, February 24, 2022, was not the first day. In fact, already May 2014 was the day when we should have understood this," Merz noted, and recalled that at that time many politicians were afraid to act decisively, looking back at 1914, so as not to accidentally provoke a world war.

In the view of the CDU leader, this analogy proved to be fundamentally flawed.

A more accurate historical analogy would be 1938: the Munich Agreement, according to which Nazi Germany received the Czechoslovak Sudetenland. It was concluded with Hitler by British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier.

"Historical analogies should always be treated with caution. But the conclusion from this – the idea that a quiet and imperceptible slide into conflict, as in 1914, must be prevented – at least in retrospect, proved to be a fundamentally flawed historical analogy.

It would probably have been more correct to take 1938 as a historical analogy. In fact, it was the same pattern that we should have recognized as early as 2014."

The politician drew a direct parallel between the appetites of Hitler and Putin, noting that attempts to appease an aggressor with territories do not work. He warned against thinking that Russia would stop at Ukraine:

"If Ukraine falls, he will not stop. Just as the Sudetenland was not enough [for Hitler] in 1938. And whoever thinks today that it all ends there, let them carefully read his strategies, documents, speeches, and appearances.

No, dear friends, this is about a fundamental change of borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union, within the borders of the old Soviet Union, with a great threat, including a military threat to countries that previously belonged to this empire," Merz argues.

To avoid catastrophe, Merz proposes a four-step plan, which effectively means a return to the policy of military deterrence.

The first and constant point is aid to Ukraine. The second is ensuring cohesion within the European Union. Moreover, Merz specifically emphasized the need to re-include Great Britain in these general strategic directions. As the third step, he named the maintenance of the NATO alliance "for as long as possible," because it is the Western alliance that remains the foundation of security. And finally, the fourth point is massive investments in Germany's own defense capabilities.

"And please, let no one say that this is an old and outdated concept. <…> We are very fortunate to live in peace. And we must not risk it. And I am not ready to risk it either."

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