Germany warns US against election interference after it announces grants scheme

Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.

The German chancellor was responding to a new US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals.

The funding will be for those seeking to “address national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with shared political philosophy, law, and our common western civilizational heritage”.

Amid growing concerns that the US is seeking to directly influence European politics, Merz said he did not want the US to interfere in German state elections in September.

“For ‌our ‌part, we do ‌not interfere in American elections,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “Conversely, I do not ‌want the American government or institutions close to the government to interfere in German ⁠elections.”

Former US officials say the grant scheme is part of a months-long effort by the state department to repurpose US government funds to support far-right groups and potentially political parties in Europe.

Friedrich Merz made his comments during his annual summer press conference in Berlin. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

The language around who might be eligible to receive the money is ambiguous, one former state department official said. The announcement of the grants specifies that “individuals” and “governmental institution” (sic) can apply, without further detail as to whom or what these categories might include.

Previous reporting has suggested that the state department under Trump is interested in funding political parties in Europe, but that it could be hampered by US laws around foreign assistance. On Wednesday, Merz highlighted that it is illegal to finance ‌political parties in Germany from abroad.

The former state department official said: “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.”

The initiative follows in the wake of high-profile attacks on traditional allies in western European countries by US figures including the vice-president, JD Vance, on issues including migration, abortion and online safety initiatives.

State department officials have also been busy forging links with European social conservative groups as well as far-right parties.

In December, a new US national security strategy claimed Europe faced “civilisational erasure” and – in an apparent reference to populist movements – hailed the growing influence of “patriotic European parties”.

And last month, the UK government rejected claims made by a senior US state department official at a rightwing conference in London that British police were making thousands of “freedom of speech” arrests.

Sarah B Rogers. Photograph: US Department of State

The allegation was made by Sarah B Rogers, who has become the public face of the US state department’s hostility to European liberal democracies and has previously been a guest of groups such as Britain’s Prosperity Institute, a think tank which campaigns from an economically libertarian and socially conservative perspective.

Earlier this year, Rogers pledged $500,000 in US funding to “promote digital freedom” during a visit to Ireland.

The Guardian has asked the Prosperity Institute if it is likely to apply for one of the state department’s “Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe” grants.

The awards are being administered by a branch of the state department called the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Though originally set up under President Jimmy Carter as an instrument of US policy during the cold war to challenge both Soviet and rightwing authoritarian regimes, it has been repurposed under the Trump administration.

Other groups in Europe that could stand to gain from the grants include Britain’s Free Speech Union, which has campaigned on issues that have become conservative causes célèbres, and organisations that have lost out on financial support as a result of Viktor Orbán’s loss of power in Hungary.