Wolfgang Bittner: The Berlin coalition agreement – a unsettling revelation
A threat scenario and the role of Germany – a former democracy on the wrong track. A dispassionate analysis.
Wolfgang Bittner
For years, Germany has been on a downward slope towards totalitarianism. The coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the SPD from April 9, 2025 is a further step on this path, stating right at the beginning: “Clarity about the right path for the coming years first requires clarity in determining our position: On the outside, the opponents of our liberal democracy are attacking our freedom. Authoritarian powers are gaining strength. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine also threatens our security. We are experiencing hybrid attacks on our country with the aim of destroying cohesion in Germany, undermining our democracy and endangering our security. But democracy is also under daily attack by its opponents in our country[1].
This “positioning” alone makes it clear of what spirit these politicians are, into whose hands the German population has fallen following the formation of the coalition. For neither are external “opponents of our liberal democracy attacking our freedom”, nor does the “Russian war of aggression against Ukraine” threaten our security. Rather, the Collective West, led by the US, has been threatening Russia for years, and the war in Ukraine is a consequence of provocations against Russia that threaten its very existence.
Nor are there the hybrid attacks we are talking about, but rather aggression and agitation against Russia that endangers us. And who is attacking democracy in our country on a daily basis if not politicians who are in the process of abolishing it, as the coalition agreement proves in many passages.
It goes on to say: “Internally, our economy is in a persistently weak growth situation. Life in Germany has become more complicated, more expensive and more stressful.” Why this is the case is not asked and certainly not answered. Not a word is said about the ruptured Baltic Sea pipelines and the ruinous energy prices caused by them, which are driving many companies into insolvency or abroad.
Immediately afterwards, it is promised that the government under Friedrich Merz will create “prosperity for all ‘, strengthen defense and deterrence capabilities and ’stand alongside Ukraine, which is also defending our freedom and the principles of the rules-based order”. It all reads like an advertisement for a detergent company. We almost already had prosperity for many, and defense or deterrence were secondary because there were no potential aggressors. The threat scenario was only constructed in the course of the West’s destructive policy.
But what defends Ukraine, which fell under the regime of nationalists and fascists after the 2014 coup and – spurred on by Washington – provoked a war with Russia? And what kind of “rules-based order” is it whose principles Ukraine is supposedly defending? Who sets the rules for such an order? Has the Charter of the United Nations, which regulates international law in terms of humanity and peaceful coexistence, been suspended? And if so, by whom?
Without criticism, the coalition agreement repeatedly invokes ties to NATO and the US, as well as to Great Britain and France; in contrast, the “destructive role” of the “Iranian regime” in the Middle East region is to be pushed back in an attempt to ingratiate itself with Washington. And Germany is to be “further expanded as a central hub of NATO due to its geographical location in Europe”, spending on defense is to increase “significantly and stringently ‘ and ’the conditions are to be created for defense detection and defense monitoring”.
Many pages of the paper deal with the military, armament, antagonism towards Russia and support for Ukraine until the desired victory against the arch-enemy, which is personalized in the person of Vladimir Putin.
Photo: ARD Tagesschau
Feindbild Russland
The hounding of Russia is never-ending. While Vladimir Putin is doing everything he can to avoid a war with NATO, the provocations of the Western alliance, which has been reduced to the US, continue. The coalition partners are of the opinion: “Our security is under greater threat today than at any time since the end of the Cold War.” This is correct, but not the conclusion: “The greatest and most direct threat comes from Russia, which is waging a brutal war of aggression against Ukraine in its fourth year, in violation of international law, and is continuing to arm itself on a massive scale. Vladimir Putin’s quest for power is directed against the rules-based international order.”
In fact, the greatest and most direct threat comes from the West, which has been seeking regime change in Moscow for years. Since his memorable speech in the German Bundestag in 2001, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly offered cooperation and extended his hand. He was rejected, lied to (Minsk agreements) and driven into a war of attrition with Ukraine by the US under Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.
Mikhail Gorbachev made a significant contribution to the unification of the GDR with the FRG in 1990, but this is ignored today. At that time, the Two Plus Four Treaty was concluded, which came into force on March 15, 1991. It declared that “only peace will emanate from German soil. According to the constitution of a united Germany, acts which are suitable and carried out with the intention of disturbing the peaceful coexistence of peoples, in particular the waging of a war of aggression, are unconstitutional and punishable by law”. The renunciation of nuclear weapons was also reaffirmed. Should all this be a relic?
Now the coalition partners are promising: “We will provide Ukraine with comprehensive support so that it can effectively defend itself against the Russian aggressor and assert itself in negotiations.” And the defense minister says that Germany must be “ready for war” by 2029. This cannot be called anything other than a crime against its own population and an existentially threatening mistake.
The majority of Berlin’s politicians have still not realized that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are talking and negotiating with each other and that the US and Russia want peace, or at least no more war. Instead of using this situation to Germany’s advantage, Friedrich Merz is dragging his own country deeper and deeper into the conflict with Russia.
During a visit to Kiev in December 2024, he said: “If our support for Ukraine weakens, then this war will last longer. If our support for Ukraine is consistent, then this war will end faster.“[2] He spoke out in favor of delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine: ”Our position is clear: we want to enable their army to reach military bases in Russia…”Selensky replied: “We are counting on stronger, more decisive action from Germany, from you personally. We are counting on it very much.”
With Merz, we can therefore expect the war in Ukraine to continue indefinitely. He reiterated his willingness to supply the Ukrainian army with Taurus in an interview with Caren Miosga on April 13, 2025, in which he also addressed his attitude towards the Russian president: Putin is committing “the most serious war crimes”, he interprets “our willingness to negotiate with him not as a serious offer to make peace possible, but as weakness”. Now the Ukrainian army must “come out of the defensive”, for example, it must be put in a position to destroy the Crimean bridge.
Brussels-based Russia expert and historian Gilbert Doctorow warned that Friedrich Merz with his “bellicose rhetoric” was “the most dangerous German leader since Adolf Hitler”. He wanted to deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and had signaled “that Ukraine could use the Taurus to destroy the Kerch Bridge (Crimea) and other targets in the Russian Crimea.” The Russians had immediately taken note of these statements and were “ready to deliver a devastating counter-attack on Germany if Merz continues his policy, which reflects the worst of German revanchism.” Merz had “gone completely off the rails with his declared plans to punish Russia”[4].
The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former President Dmitry Medvedev also called Friedrich Merz a Nazi,[5] and Kremlin spokesman Peskov lamented a lack of will on the part of Western European governments to “look for ways to hold peace talks”. They were “more inclined to provoke the continuation of the war”[6].
Friedrich Merz’s personal commitment to Ukraine
Friedrich Merz gives the Kiew rulers a boost with his support. The former Ukrainian ambassador Andrij Melnyk, who worships the fascist Bandera[7] and has distinguished himself with insults and audacity, has publicly approached him with an almost insane list of demands: The coalition should pass a resolution “on financing arms supplies for Ukraine amounting to at least 0.5 percent of GDP (21.5 billion euros per year) or 86 billion euros by 2029… Initiate and implement the same 0.5 percent scheme at EU level (372 billion euros by 2029)” as well as “the immediate delivery of 150 Taurus cruise missiles” and “30 percent of available German fighter jets and helicopters…”[8]
It can be assumed that such demands were not made without consultation with Selensky. The madness emanating from the Kiev war government could not be more clearly illustrated. The praise Merz receives from Melnyk is revealing: “You know how much I – as a long-standing ambassador – have always appreciated the confidential exchange with you as CDU chairman and CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in April 2022, thanks to your personal commitment and massive pressure from the opposition in parliament, we succeeded in persuading Chancellor Scholz and the traffic light government to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine after a long period of hesitation. Your courageous visit to Kiev in early May 2022 – as the first German statesman to do so – was also a strong signal to spur on the German government at the time to give Ukraine much more military support[9].
The following passage in the coalition agreement corresponds to this: “Ukraine, as a strong, democratic and sovereign state that determines its future independently and with a Euro-Atlantic perspective, is of central importance for our own security. We will therefore substantially strengthen and reliably continue our military, civilian and political support for Ukraine together with our partners. We will work closely with our partners to develop a joint strategy towards a genuine and sustainable peace in which Ukraine acts from a position of strength and on an equal footing. This also includes material and political security guarantees for a sovereign Ukraine. Germany will participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Merz and his coalition partners seem to have completely missed, or they simply don’t want to know, that Ukraine is a failed state whose rulers want their soldiers, many of whom have been forcibly recruited, to fight Russia to the last bullet under the direction of Western bellicosity. The fact that the nuclear power Russia cannot be defeated is alien to the instigators, and they are already planning their business in the reconstruction of the destroyed territories.
When the coalition agreement states that “the goal of our foreign and security policy is the preservation of peace in freedom and security”, these are nothing but hollow words, as can be seen from the other declarations of intent. This also applies to the commitment to NATO, which is particularly emphasized, as well as to the US and the UK: “The transatlantic alliance and close cooperation with the US remain of central importance to us. We are strengthening Europe’s ability to act, deepening existing strategic partnerships, building new ones, especially with countries of the Global South, and supporting multilateral formats with all our strength… The United Kingdom is one of the closest partners of the EU and Germany – bilaterally and within NATO.”
It is questionable whether the countries of the Global South are interested in strategic partnerships with warmongers. And transatlantic alliance and close partnership with the US? Obviously, Merz and his partners have not yet realized that this has been a chimera since Donald Trump’s presidency and that Germany is still in a state of unconditional surrender and, according to the UN Charter, is an enemy state towards the opponents of the Second World War,[10] including Russia.
In addition, many of the statements are incredibly impertinent and shameless. For example, it says: “In coordination with our partners, we are looking for ways to use the frozen Russian state assets to provide Ukraine with financial and military support.” What does this mean other than theft, with serious consequences for the security of the global financial system? The already declining trust in Western pseudo-democracies is thus being gambled away for good.
Menacing views on domestic policy
The coalition agreement also contains extremely explosive announcements on domestic policy in the chapter “Bureaucracy reduction, state modernization and modern justice”. It begins with a cliché: “Modernization needs new impetus. Over the next four years, the coalition wants to show that Germany is back. To do this, we need to improve in many areas and modernize state decisions, processes and structures. As the federal government, we want to show that this is possible and lead the way.”
But then it says: “Germany needs real state reform.” It goes on to say: “We are focusing on consistent digitalization and ‘digital-only’: administrative services should be made possible in an uncomplicated digital way via a central platform (”one-stop store”), i.e. without going through the authorities or in writing. Every citizen will be required to have a citizen account and a digital identity. We will make the EUDI wallet available to citizens and companies, which will enable identification, authentication and payments. Anyone who does not want to or cannot go the digital route will receive help on site.”
That sounds like a sheep pen where every sheep has a tag stamped in its ear on which all its personal data is stored. Business journalist and Handelsblatt editor Norbert Häring writes: “‘Digital only’ means that the traditional ways of receiving state benefits and transportation services, as well as fulfilling the obligations imposed by the state, are being systematically eliminated in order to force people to conduct their affairs digitally and automatically. This also necessarily applies to payment, where cash is one of the analog solutions to be abolished. This not only means that citizens will be completely monitored. It also means that they will have to adapt completely to the system that the bureaucrats have devised and programmed together with the technocrats.”[11]
Häring fears a dystopian development: “The system no longer offers people as contact persons who can ensure that it adapts flexibly to people’s needs, including people with special needs that the programmers have not thought of and those in special situations. In other words, the new government is working hard to realize the technocrat dream of a centrally controlled society from which humans are eliminated as autonomous decision-makers and instead turned into functioning cogs in a centrally controlled social mega-machine.”
The announcement of a mandatory citizen account and a digital identity is indeed frightening. This would give state institutions access to all the information of all citizens. If this information is then used “to point out possible benefit entitlements and simplify the application process”, there will be no more privacy. In a pretense of care, the coalition partners offer: “We will increasingly work without applications. For example, after the birth of a child, parents will automatically receive a child benefit notification.”
The state can therefore grant benefits without an application – but it can also withdraw them. It can help citizens, it can even protect them from “disinformation” or “hatred and agitation”, but it can also cut them off from information, disinform them, reprimand them, sanction them and punish them for impropriety. The state knows everything, that is, and it can do with it as it pleases. This is the Orwellian surveillance state in perfection.
Accordingly, the coalition partners want to introduce a “cultural change and modern leadership ‘, apparently with a leadership elite: ’Public service employees are the anchor of stability for the German state. We will establish and promote a modern and appreciative leadership culture.” Now that many people are seeking security in the public sector in highly uncertain times, these privileged citizens will then lead the herds that take to the streets with the politicians who conclude such a coalition agreement to demonstrate for democracy or bans on patriotism. The division of society has been progressing for some time now and could become explosive under state control. But they are arming themselves against it.
The announcement fits in with this: “As far as the enemies of democracy are concerned, the principle of ‘zero tolerance’ applies. It is the responsibility of the state and society as a whole to counteract any destabilization of our free democratic basic order and not to leave our security authorities alone in doing so… The security authorities are to be given the power to carry out automated (AI-based) data analysis for certain purposes. Under certain narrowly defined conditions in the case of serious crimes, we want to enable law enforcement authorities to use retrograde biometric remote identification to identify perpetrators.”
The problematic “remote biometric identification” is therefore likely to become standard, and the persecution of dissidents under the pretext of social responsibility will increase. Experience has shown that the security agencies have largely taken on a life of their own, that hostility to democracy and “narrowly defined conditions” can be interpreted, and that “destabilization of our free democratic basic order” can already include statements critical of the system on internet forums or in private email traffic controlled by the secret service.
Monitoring is to be intensified: “We are tightening the sanctions available to platforms, particularly in the event of systemic deficiencies in the removal of criminal content.” To this end, the media supervisory authority is to be given legal guidelines that it can use to take stronger action against “fake news, hate and agitation”. Social media platforms should actively combat what is considered disinformation, otherwise there is a risk of penalties or blocking. Criticism of the government will therefore become even riskier, especially as denunciation and opinion mongering against critics will become part of the program: “We will continue to support projects for democratic participation through the federal program ‘Demokratie leben!
Germany is to become an “AI nation” and the security authorities are to be allowed to analyze “AI-based” data, apparently without the need for data protection. This will probably require a “more open and positive understanding of data use”, which is recommended. For those who refuse or opt out, the following then applies: “As part of strengthening the resilience of our democracy, we regulate the withdrawal of the passive right to vote in the event of multiple convictions for incitement to hatred.”
The coalition paper also addresses migration and integration: “As a country of immigration, Germany is characterized by people of different origins. We want to remain an immigration-friendly country and make qualified immigration into our labor market attractive.” To this end, legal access routes must be created. Integration should be intensively promoted, while irregular migration should be “reduced” and refoulement at national borders should also be made possible for asylum applications.
Again, many hollow words and only modest approaches to solving the growing problems caused by an unlawful “immigration policy”. Germany is not an immigration country, like the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, it is an immigration country and this mistake of Merkel’s migration policy should finally be recognized and corrected. If every country to which people from other parts of the world want to immigrate were an immigration country, then Switzerland, for example, would also be one of them. But the Swiss would certainly reject that outright.
The path to an uncertain future
The coalition agreement is supposed to provide clarity about the right path for the coming years. Instead, it reveals the disturbing, threatening and in some cases frightening intentions of a political group that presumes to direct, coerce and monitor citizens as if in a puppet show and possibly lead them to war. The coalition partners are proud of initiating this.
Friedrich Merz, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of BlackRock Asset Management Germany until 2020,[12] who wants to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, apparently already sees himself as the supreme warlord in the fight against Russia. And the previously rather colorless co-chairman of the SPD, Lars Klingbeil, is renowned: “We are the most important country and the strongest country in Europe, and stability will come from us if we manage to have a stable government here.”[13]
But as soon as the coalition agreement was signed, there were already disputes between the partners over the minimum wage and the reduction in income tax for small and medium-sized incomes.[14] And stability in a country that is currently ruining itself? Striving for great power in a country that is still in a state of unconditional surrender as a potential enemy state?
Klingbeil and Merz want to continue to support Ukraine in its war with weapons and money, and it can be assumed that Klingbeil will ultimately go along with Merz’s intention on the Taurus issue, even though the overwhelming opinion in the SPD is against it. He reveals his intellectual position when he says: “I was there – which was a really moving moment – when the first Ukrainian soldier fired a shot with a Leopard 2 tank.”[15]
The son of a Bundeswehr soldier, who grew up in the garrison town of Munster, obviously considers himself a gifted politician when he talks about his “damn high level of responsibility” and muses: “I think we’re in a historical phase right now that you’ll look back on in twenty years and ask yourself whether you made the right decisions and set the right course back then.” Like his coalition partner, he doesn’t seem to realize how much they are damaging democracy and what they are doing to “our country”, which they constantly talk about.
It is currently impossible to predict what will happen next. Former health minister Jens Spahn, a member of the CDU executive committee, came as a complete surprise to the coalition partners. Although the CDU has an incompatibility resolution against the AfD, in an interview with the Bild newspaper on April 11, he called for the AfD to be dealt with in parliament “in the same way as any other opposition party”. The controversy continues. And then the result of a vote by the approximately 358,300 SPD members on the coalition agreement is still pending.
The writer and publicist Dr. Wolfgang Bittner is the author of numerous books, including “Die Eroberung Europas durch die US” and “Deutschland – Verraten und verkauft”. His book “Niemand soll hungern, ohne zu frieren. It cannot and will not stay as it is” was recently published by zeitgeist.
Sources and notes
1 www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag2025_bf.pdf
2 Zit. wie www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/merz-ukraine-108.html
6 Zit. wie www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/ukraine-merz-taurus-russland-kreml-medwedew-100.html
7 Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), Kriegsverbrecher, Mörder und Nazikollaborateur, als Nationalheld verehrt
9 Ebd.
10 Dazu Wolfgang Bittner, „Niemand soll hungern, ohne zu frieren. So wie es ist, kann und wird es nicht bleiben“, Verlag zeitgeist, Höhr-Grenzhausen 2024, S. 69-73
11 Siehe: https://norberthaering.de/news/koalitionsvertrag-digitalzwang/
12 BlackRock Inc., eine US-amerikanische Investmentgesellschaft, verwaltet weltweit ein Vermögen von über 10 Billionen US-Dollar.
13 Vgl. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qvDCT96B6w (19.4.2025)
14 Vgl. www.fr.de/politik/senkung-der-einkommensteuer-spd-geht-auf-konfrontationskurs-93684719.html
15 Zit. wie https://rtde.agency/meinung/190373-lars-klingbeil-neuer-tiefpunkt-in/. Sowie: https://weltexpress.info/lars-klingbeil-ein-neuer-tiefpunkt-in-der-geschichte-der-spd/
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