Back off, Trump. Germany wants to Make Europe Strong Again

Berlin’s EU presidency motto has echoes of MAGA.

BERLIN — Forget Make America Great Again. Here comes Make Europe Strong Again.

The German government has settled on “Gemeinsam. Europa wieder stark machen" — which translates into English as "Together. Making Europe strong again" — as its slogan for the country's upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU, which kicks off on July 1.

The official English motto is a less Trumpian "Together for Europe's recovery," however.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Friday that the motto — launched along with a Möbius strip logo and website — aims to illustrate the German presidency will have to "find compromises and solutions to tackle the challenges posed by the corona pandemic" across Europe.

The logo is meant to symbolize "joint action emerging from the EU's diversity again and again," he said.

Merkel said earlier this week that China would be one of the priorities of the German presidency. On Friday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin wants to develop “a robust EU strategy on China” during the coming six months, with a flagship summit of all EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for September 14.

“I believe that the best way to influence China is to make it clear that the European Union is very united … and that it will not be possible to break individual countries out of this unity,” Maas said.