Macron, Merz & Starmer forge deeper ties to counter Donald Trump; Europe begins fending for itself?

Europe’s new “MacMerzMer” trio – Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz – has evolved into an informal top‑tier leadership core, holding joint strategy calls with Volodymyr Zelensky as Kyiv rejected a US peace blueprint and using G20 sidelines meetings to dispatch their security advisers for crisis talks in Geneva. Though each leader faces serious domestic challenges, the three have bonded over shared weakness and threat perceptions, driving a revived E3 that has backed a reassurance force for Ukraine headquartered near Paris, signed fresh bilateral and trilateral defence pacts in 2025, and pushed European “strategic autonomy” while still diverging on issues such as Palestine, China and arms procurement.