BERLIN: Leading German politicians Tuesday called for the new US ambassador to be expelled after the staunch ally of Donald Trump was accused of meddling in domestic politics and aggravating already tense ties.
Richard Grenell took up his Berlin posting on May 8 and immediately irked Germany when he tweeted the same day that German companies should stop doing business with Iran as Trump quit the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
He stoked further outrage last weekend with reported comments to right-wing website Breitbart of his ambition to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders”.
Grenell also raised eyebrows with his plan to host a lunch on June 13 for Austria’s arch-conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, described by the US envoy as a “rock star”.
“What this man is doing is unheard of in international diplomacy,” Martin Schulz, former chief of the Social Democratic Party and an ex-European Parliament president, told national news agency DPA.
“If a German ambassador were to say in Washington that he is there to empower the Democrats, he would have been kicked out immediately.
“I hope that Kurz’s visit will lead Mr Grenell’s tenure as ambassador in Germany to be short,” added Schulz, playing on the German word for short “kurz”.
Schulz had earlier tweeted that the US envoy did not behave like a diplomat but like a “far-right colonial officer”.
Amid the row, Germany’s foreign ministry is seeking clarification from Grenell about his comments, with the topic to be raised at a pre-arranged meeting Wednesday between the envoy and senior official Andreas Michaelis.
“There will certainly be a lot to discuss and that’s why it’s good that the ambassador will be a guest tomorrow of state secretary Michaelis,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
– ‘Awful interview’ –
But the opposition far-left Die Linke party’s chief Sahra Wagenknecht said Grenell had disqualified himself as ambassador.
“Someone like US ambassador Richard Grenell, who thinks he can lord over Europe and determine who is governing here, can no longer stay in Germany as a diplomat,” Wagenknecht told Die Welt daily.
“If the government takes the democratic sovereignty of our country seriously, then it shouldn’t just invite Grenell to a chat over coffee, but expel him immediately,” she added.
The appointment of Grenell, a hawkish supporter of Trump’s “America First” stance, was long held up by US senators who objected to his allegedly disparaging tweets on female politicians and apparent refusal to take seriously claims of Russian meddling in the US election.
The storm comes as ties between Germany and the United States are strained after Trump ditched the Iran nuclear deal and imposed punishing tariffs on European aluminium and steel.
Underlining the souring transatlantic relationship, Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Europe can no longer rely on the US to protect it and must “take its destiny into its own hands”.
