Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the Social Democratic Party and likely candidate for vice chancellor, issued his starkest warning yet about the transatlantic relationship in an interview with Der Spiegel published Thursday, declaring that "everyone in Europe should now finally have heard the shot."
The statement, made just weeks before Germany's federal election on February 23rd, represents a significant rhetorical escalation from the SPD—traditionally the most Atlanticist of Germany's major parties. Klingbeil's language suggests the party is preparing German voters for a fundamental recalibration of the country's security posture, regardless of who leads the next government.
"Donald Trump is holding up a mirror to Europe," Klingbeil told the magazine, framing the American president's threats against Greenland, tariff warnings, and demands for increased NATO spending not as aberrations but as catalysts forcing long-overdue strategic decisions in Brussels and Berlin.
In Germany, as elsewhere in Europe, consensus takes time—but once built, it lasts. Klingbeil's comments suggest that consensus is forming across the political spectrum that European security can no longer rest primarily on American guarantees.
The timing is deliberate. With Friedrich Merz's CDU leading polls ahead of the February election, Klingbeil appears to be staking out common ground on defense policy that could survive a change in government. Both major parties now acknowledge that Germany must significantly increase defense spending beyond the NATO two-percent target, though they differ on fiscal mechanisms.
The SPD leader's rhetoric marks a departure from Olaf Scholz's more cautious approach during his tenure as chancellor. While Scholz announced the €100 billion Bundeswehr special fund after Russia's invasion of —his so-called or —implementation has been slower than Germany's European partners demanded.
