Monday 05 / May / 2025
Berlin: Germany has asked the US government to clarify remarks by President Donald Trump's new ambassador to Berlin after he told a right-wing website he wanted to empower "other conservatives" in Europe.
The comments by Richard Grenell, a former US spokesman at the United Nations and an outspoken defender of Trump, drew criticism from politicians across the German political spectrum, warning him not to meddle in domestic politics.
"We have asked the US side for clarification, and whether (the remarks) were made as reported," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The issue would be looked at again on Wednesday when Grenell is due to make his first official call at the ministry, the spokesman said.
Barely two months in office, the political appointee caused anger in his very first week with a tweet telling German companies to withdraw from Iran after the US withdrew from a non-proliferation deal with Iran.
In a further breach of protocol, Grenell also invited Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policies, to an embassy lunch during his forthcoming visit to Berlin, Spiegel magazine reported on Monday.
In an interview with Breitbart News at the weekend, Grenell attributed the groundswell of conservatives across Europe to the "failed policies of the left", adding: "I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders."
In the same interview, he described himself as a big fan of Kurz, the head of the conservative People's Party and who shares power with the far-right Freedom Party in Vienna.
An embassy spokesman said Kurz had requested the meeting.
An Austrian governemnt spokesman said Grenell was one of a number of people whom Kurz would meet during his Berlin trip.
The statement did not say who had initiated the meeting.
Merkel declined to comment on Kurz's planned visit to the US embassy during his June 12 visit to Berlin.
"Like many others, I have taken note of this," she said in a cool remark at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said that he had also had a brief meeting with Grenell during his Berlin visit.
"I was asked by the American ambassador to meet him at the airport," he said.
"I wouldn't draw any great meaning into that." Rolf Muetzenich, deputy leader of the Social Democrats in parliament, said Grenell's remarks should be raised quickly with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"Clearly the US ambassador sees himself as an extension of a right-wing conservative world movement," he told Reuters.
Muetzenich added that Grenell's actions violated the 1961 Vienna Convention, under which diplomats do not interfere in the domestic affairs of a country.
Grenell, like Trump an avid Twitter user, defended himself. "I stand by my comments that we are experiencing an awakening from the silent majority - those who reject the elites & their bubble. Led by Trump."
Not all German politicians have been hostile.
Jens Spahn, perhaps the most prominent critic of Merkel within her Christian Democratic Union party, has been photographed repeatedly with the new ambassador since he arrived in Berlin.
