Merz warns U.S. against funding European groups tied to MAGA movement

State Department offers $3 million grants for sovereignty, migration projects

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued the warning during his annual summer press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. State Department published a grant notice under its International Support for Civil Society program. The notice invites applications from European charities, think tanks and individuals for projects that “address national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with shared political philosophy, law, and our common western civilizational heritage,” according to a copy of the notice obtained by The Guardian.

Merz said Germany had a long-standing policy of not interfering in American elections and expected the same from Washington. “For our part, we do not interfere in American elections,” he told reporters. “Conversely, I do not want the American government or institutions close to the government to interfere in German elections.”

The chancellor’s comments came two months before German state elections scheduled for September. German law prohibits foreign financing of political parties from abroad, Merz noted.

One former State Department official told The Guardian that the language around who might be eligible for the grants is ambiguous. The notice specifies that “individuals” and “governmental institution” — a typographical error in the original — can apply, without further detail on what those categories include. The official said there appears 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 Guardian reported that previous reporting had suggested the State Department under Trump is interested in funding political parties in Europe but could be hampered by U.S. laws around foreign assistance.

A State Department spokesman said the grants are not available to political parties. “The Trump administration remains committed to defending democracy and human rights around the world, including in Europe,” the spokesman told The Guardian. “Our programming in Europe aims to support our European allies in defending those rights and principles, along with their civilizational self-confidence and sovereignty from those who seek to undermine them.”

The grants are being administered by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, a State Department branch established under President Jimmy Carter during the Cold War. The Guardian reported that the bureau has been repurposed under the Trump administration.

The announcement follows a series of public attacks on traditional Western European allies by U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, on issues including migration, abortion and online safety initiatives. State Department officials have also been forging links with European social conservative groups and far-right parties, according to The Guardian.

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

Groups in Europe that could stand to gain from the grants include Britain’s Free Speech Union and the Prosperity Institute, a think tank that campaigns from an economically libertarian and socially conservative perspective. The Guardian has asked both groups whether they intend to apply.