Germany's chancellor frontrunner Merz says US could slide into populist instability

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's conservative leader Friedrich Merz said on Thursday the U.S. was at risk of sliding into longer-term authoritarian instability, casting doubt on Washington's presence for Germany’s 70th NATO membership anniversary in May.

The outgoing government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and likely successor Merz have largely avoided direct public criticism of President Donald Trump's month-old administration. But senior U.S. officials' remarks on NATO and free speech in Europe over the past week have been condemned by Berlin.

Merz is candidate to be chancellor for the two allied conservative parties (CDU/CSU) that are leading polls ahead of a snap federal election on Sunday.

"I hope that it (the U.S.) remains a democracy and does not slide into an authoritarian populist system," Merz said at a campaign event in Darmstadt.

He said that if the U.S. remained a democracy, it would need partners as only autocratic systems operated alone.

"But it may be that America will enter a longer period of instability and that this populism, this autocratic behaviour of the heads of state, will continue for a longer period of time," he said, calling for Germany and Europe to step up to become able to defend themselves.

Merz said he was not certain it would be possible to celebrate Germany's 70 years of NATO membership as the political order it had been used to was crumbling.

"Will the Americans still be there? Eight weeks ago I would not have dared to ask this question, but today we have to give an answer to it," he said.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Daniel Wallis)