Incident in the USA. Some German politicians stayed at the door

The plans included, among others: meeting with Brendan Hanrahan, a senior official in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, which was scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Rottgen and Moller were to jointly represent Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition (CDU). However, according to information from Politico, the meeting did not take place.

The US State Department informed the German embassy in Washington that it is ready to accept only CDU and AfD MPs, and not representatives of the SPD and the Greens. Rottgen rejected this formula of talks and declared that he would not participate in them without his coalition partners. It is unclear who ultimately officially canceled the meeting.

The German Foreign Ministry declined to provide Politico with detailed explanations about the matter, stating only that the U.S. State Department canceled the meeting at the last minute “due to scheduling reasons.”

This incident is contrary to the practice of hosting parliamentary delegations, which usually include representatives of both the coalition and the opposition from a given country. Behind the scenes, German officials are said to be concerned about how parts of US President Donald Trump's administration view the European political scene.

During their stay in the US, Rottgen and Moller held talks with US congressmen and representatives of the US National Security Council close to Trump. During a press briefing in Berlin, Rottgen was asked whether he had noticed the increased interest of Republican politicians in the AfD party during his trip. The parliamentarian strongly denied it.

No, I didn't notice any interest, any particular activities or anything else

– he said.

Rottgen was much more critical of the lunch with representatives of the MAGA camp, which he said was attended by businessmen, lobbyists and diplomatic representatives, including ambassadors. The politician said that the conversation partners had a “fixed worldview” that “was new to him in this form.” As he added, “never before, during all his trips to Washington, had he encountered such a vision of the world.”

In a statement to Politico, Moller said the incident shows that “clear coordination and reliable cooperation are still lacking in parts of the U.S. administration, even a year after taking office.” At the same time, she emphasized that despite this, high-level talks had been held with representatives of the administration, in particular with Republican members of Congress.

The claim that only the AfD still has access to Washington is therefore baseless and simply untrue

– she emphasized.

Tense relations between Germany and the USA. “The growing influence of patriotic European parties”

At the same time, AfD MP Peter Felser was invited to a meeting at the Pentagon with David A. Baker, Deputy Secretary of State for European Policy and NATO at the US Department of Defense. The politician asked for it about two weeks earlier through the German embassy. The main topic of the talks was the new US national security strategy and Washington's expectations that Germany should take a stronger leadership role in European defense.

Felser told Politico that the U.S.'s willingness to meet with him shows that Washington is not falling for what he called “an attempt by the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition to exclude the AfD.” He said that such openness to talks is “important support” for his party.

Both Felser and AfD politician Gerald Otten, who was also a member of the delegation, stated that U.S. representatives had sought contact with their party in recent months to explore the possibility of future cooperation. The talks focused mainly on the AfD's position on issues such as the EU, NATO and the goal of increasing defense spending of NATO member states to 5%. GDP.

The incident took place at a time when the Trump administration welcomes the “growing influence of patriotic European parties” – a phrase that is understood in Berlin as a signal of greater US sympathy for right-wing parties such as AfD.

Department of Defense officials regularly meet with parliamentarians from allied countries to discuss issues of common security policy interests

— this is how the spokesman for the US Department of Defense commented on the meeting with Felser.

However, the State Department denied that it directed the delegation's visits in line with party preferences. The statement said: “Senior State Department officials remain in regular contact with representatives of a broad spectrum of political parties and leaders. We do not comment on private diplomatic meetings.”

In a briefing after his trip to the United States, Rottgen expressed cautious optimism that power relations in Washington could still change. He said the situation in Europe is “very serious,” while in the United States “everything is dynamic.”