Thursday's White House meeting between Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Donald Trump was highly anticipated and top news in Germany. Just under half of the eligible German voters taking part in the monthly Deutschlandtrend survey expected Merz to find a good rapport with the US president. A similar number also said Merz did not have enough diplomatic skills to deal with the foreign policy challenges of his new role.

This is the result of the latest Deutschlandtrend, a representative survey of 1,292 eligible German voters conducted for public broadcasting network ARD by pollsters infratest dimap in early June.

Germany has close relations with the United States and also with Israel. However, respondents see relations as becoming more distanced. France and Ukraine are currently seen as much more reliable partners.

The vast majority — 84% — of those surveyed thought that Russia could not be relied upon, and 73% said the same of the US. Israel was also classified as no longer reliable by a clear majority. Only 16% of respondents still regarded Israel as a partner that Germany can rely on — an 11%........

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