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Managing relationships with Trump's White House will be another balancing act for Merz, a committed Atlanticist who raised eyebrows on election night when he declared Europe should "achieve independence from the USA".

This tone from the close US ally - and from Friedrich Merz who is known to be a passionate Atlanticist - would have been unimaginable even a couple of months ago.

Biden, the most fervently Atlanticist president in decades, allayed these fears.

“All that happened with a die-hard Atlanticist and die-hard alliance supporter in the White House,” said Charles Kupchan, a Georgetown University professor who previously served as Europe director on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council.

As foreign minister from 2007 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2013, Mr. Schwarzenberg was a committed Atlanticist and European, who opposed Russian imperial ambitions.