Merz warns Washington to stay out of German elections as US unveils $5M Europe grants scheme

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a pointed warning to the Trump administration on Wednesday after the US State Department launched a nearly $5 million grants program to fund European groups aligned with MAGA priorities — a move former US officials say is designed to tilt the political playing field toward the far right ahead of key elections this autumn.

The scheme, first reported by the Financial Times and confirmed by both the Guardian and Politico, offers individual grants of up to $3 million to European charities, thinktanks and individuals willing to 'address national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with shared political philosophy, law, and our common Western civilizational heritage,' according to the State Department's own language.

We do not interfere in American elections; we've always stuck to that. Conversely, I don't want the American government or government-affiliated institutions to interfere in German elections.— Friedrich Merz, German Chancellor

Merz also flagged a specific legal tripwire: under German law, financing political parties from abroad is illegal. Though the State Department insists 'these funds are not available to political parties,' the grants program's eligibility language is notably loose — listing 'individuals' and 'governmental institution' as potential recipients without further definition, according to the Guardian.

Who stands to win and who stands to lose from this program is where the story gets concrete. On the potential winners' side: groups like Britain's Free Speech Union, organisations that lost funding after Viktor Orbán's fall from power in Hungary, and — at least in theory — civil society organisations with ties to parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is currently polling first nationally, according to Politico. The AfD has a realistic shot at regional power in Saxony-Anhalt in September, the same elections Merz specifically named.

The clearest losers are the European institutions the program seems designed to pressure. The funding call explicitly targets EU efforts to regulate US big tech, criticising 'supra-national institutions and governments' for using 'overbroad and vague hate-speech laws and online content regulations,' according to Politico — a direct shot at frameworks like the EU's Digital Services Act.

Also on the losing end: the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the State Department branch administering the grants. Originally created under President Jimmy Carter as a Cold War instrument to challenge Soviet and rightwing authoritarian regimes, the bureau has now been repurposed to fund causes that critics say mirror the authoritarian playbook it was built to counter, according to the Guardian.

There seems to be an effort by the state department to put the thumb on the scale of elections in Europe, giving an unfair advantage to rightwing parties with resources that they would ordinarily not get.— Former US State Department official

The State Department pushed back, with a spokesperson telling both outlets that the administration 'remains committed to defending democracy and human rights around the world, including in Europe,' and that the programming 'aims to support our European allies in defending those rights and principles, along with their civilizational self-confidence and sovereignty.' Senior officials have previously denied interfering in European politics even while holding meetings with far-right politicians, including the AfD, according to Politico.

The grants program is not emerging in a vacuum. It follows a pattern that has accelerated since Trump's return to power: JD Vance's attack on European 'firewalls' against the far right at the Munich Security Conference; a December US national security strategy warning of Europe's 'civilisational erasure'; and State Department official Sarah B Rogers pledging $500,000 to 'promote digital freedom' in Ireland and appearing at rightwing conferences in London, where her claims about British free-speech arrests were flatly rejected by the UK government — all according to the Guardian.

For Merz, the timing is politically delicate. He has worked to maintain a functional relationship with Washington — meeting Trump in the Oval Office in March — while resisting pressure to legitimise the AfD domestically. A US-funded boost to far-right-adjacent civil society groups in the run-up to September's state elections would complicate both tasks simultaneously.

The AfD, despite eagerly embracing Elon Musk's endorsements early in Trump's second term, has publicly distanced itself from MAGA in recent months, calculating that the association is a liability in the eastern German strongholds where it is competing hardest in September, according to Politico.

Why it matters — With Germany's far-right AfD polling first nationally and state elections weeks away, a US government funding stream — however it is ultimately used — lands directly inside a live democratic contest, testing the limits of allied interference norms in a way Europe has not faced from Washington before.

Sources differ on Whether the grants program constitutes election interference: Yes — 'an effort to put the thumb on the scale of elections in Europe,' giving far-right parties an unfair advantage (theguardian.com (former US official)) vs No — 'solely meant to support human rights'; funds not available to political parties (theguardian.com / politico.eu (State Department spokesperson))

Reported by theguardian.com, politico.eu