Name: Merz in Davos: Europe will respond united and firm if Trump still imposes tariffs | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-22T16:56:13.000Z
Duration: 7 min 28 s
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Addressing delegations in Davos earlier today, German Chancellor Friedrich Matz welcomed Donald Trump's decision to back away from threats to seize Greenland by force.

Metz's speech came a day after the US President made his apparent climb down from taking Greenland.

Trump also dropped his threat of new tariffs on any European country that opposed his plan to annex the Arctic territory.

But he did say the US Is working on a potential Greenland deal following talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

To Germany's Metz warned Europe would respond if tariffs were put on back.

I welcome President Trump's remarks from last night.

This is the right way because any threat to acquire European territory by force would be unacceptable.

And ladies and gentlemen, new tariffs would also undermine the foundations of transatlantic relations if they are put in place.

Europe's answer would be united, calm, measured and firm.

Let's bring in our Europe business and economics correspondent, Marie Zina.

Marie, how was the German chancellor's speech received by the audience there?

Well, the speech comes at a time where the temperature here has dropped quite a bit.

People are feeling more relaxed since Donald Trump's speech yesterday and since the Greenland crisis has calmed down somewhat.

At the same time, Friedrich Matt's speech here has been perceived as quite gloomy but also level headed.

For Schmatz stressed that we are entering a new era of great power politics.

And he also warned about the dangers that come along with that, referencing Germany and in the 20th century.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom because that the Europe has the power to shape this world order and Europe has the power to shape it by taking care of its own defense, by stepping up its game there and by stepping up its game economically and dealing with the United States rates on eye level.

So that was the main message here, which was actually very similar to the message of European Commission President Ursula von der Line on Tuesday here, who also stressed the importance of an independent, of a strong Europe at the same time.

Business leaders here will be happy to hear that stressed so much the importance of making Europe and Germany a friendlier place for a business by reducing bureaucracy, regulation and taxation.

And our political correspondent Hans Brandt joins me in the studio.

Hans, what did you make of Chancellor Mantz's speech?

To some extent, you might say it was quite stark.

His warning that the great power game was a dangerous place to be in and that, you know, we had to prepare for a lot of pulling and toing and throwing a lot of Power games in that kind of new sphere.

At the same time I, I think he tried to give a message of hope by saying that if people stand together, if countries in Europe for instance, cooperate with each other, and

if they cooperate across the world with other middle sized powers, such as Canada for instance, then they would have the capacity in fact to play a leading role in this power game, to sit at the table, to have their interests represented.

at the same time a look forward to cooperation across the world in order to protect the interests of middle sized powers.

He made a very compelling point by drawing on Germany's history.

Let's listen to some of what he had to say.

A world where only power counts is a dangerous place.

First for small states, then for the middle powers and ultimately for the great ones.

In the 20th century, my country Germany went down this road to its bitter end.

So let us bear in mind our greatest strength remains the ability to build partnerships and alliances among equals based on mutual trust and respect.

Hans Mance didn't mention Trump by name, but this was clearly directed at him, wasn't it?

Of course he is trying to say to Trump as well, even if you are the big power, there are examples in history where powers have overextended their reach, have overextended their power.

Second World War, a disaster for the world as a whole.

If you don't do it correctly, you can end up being the enemy of the entire world and that's not going to end up well for you.

I think that is the warning that is hidden in there.

But at the same time I think again he is saying that if we cooperate, if we continue dialogue, if we cooperate also between middle powers such as Germany and the European Union and the United States, that is to everyone's benefit.

So his idea that one should stand up as the European Union, one should stand up as Germany or France or Canada against the pressure against the power play from the United States doesn't necessarily mean that it's needs, that it's going to be confrontational forever.

There is, there are ways to find common ground, to find cooperation.

But at the same time I think he's pleading very strongly for middle powers, for the European Union to stand up for their own interests.

Yeah, he said that the world had entered a time of great power politics.

Where does he see the European Union's role specifically in that new scenario?

Well, he had several points where the European Union had to act very quickly.

The first one is security spend a lot more money, which it already is doing, on defence, in order to become more independent in its own defence from the United States.

The second was economic, to reduce barriers within the European Union to economic activity so that the economy would be stronger, there would be greater free market activity within Europe.

And then there is also the attempt to find alliances with countries across the world, such as India, Mexico, the southern American states, Indonesia were mentioned, where free trade agreements could create greater markets and greater market power, which again, would then be leveraged against the great powers such as the United States and China.

TW political correspondent Hans Brand, thank you so much for coming onto the show today.