Merz makes moves to build coalition as German parliamentary groups meet for first time since election – Europe live

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European charm offensive on Ukraine - what you need to know

US president Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron embrace during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House. Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

If you missed the start of the European charm offensive in Washington last night, here is all you need to know:

• Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has warned Donald Trump against a “surrender” of Ukraine as the US president said Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal” that could include European peacekeepers.

• Mixing flattery and firmness, the French president sought to heal the transatlantic schism over Ukraine, giving Keir Starmer a tough act to follow on Thursday.

• The United Nations general assembly has backed a resolution drafted by Ukraine and the European Union condemning Russia on the third anniversary of its full-scale invasion. The United States, Russia, Belarus and North Korea all voted against the resolution underlining an extraordinary shift in US policy since the US president’s election.

• These developments come as European allies rush to showcase extra support for Kyiv just after the third anniversary of the war.

For live updates on Ukraine, follow our special live blog here:

Morning opening: No more GroKo

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German news agency, has ruled that the new expected coalition between the conservative CDU/CSU union and the Social Democratic party will no longer qualify as a “grand coalition”, or GroKo, as it was known in Angela Merkel years.

This is to account for the reality that the two are no longer the largest parties in the new Bundestag – with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland now the second largest, ahead of the SPD, after the elections on Sunday.

So, the hunt is on for a new name. Building on a slightly unusual tradition of naming coalitions by references to other countries’ flags, first suggestions were to call it “the Albanian coalition” or “the Angolan coalition” (black and red are the colours of the two parties, although in both cases there are some, erm, additional elements on their flags, too), but in more unusual ideas someone said it could be the “Coke Zero” coalition, too. “Real taste and zero calories”. Any other ideas?

As entertaining as it is, finding an informal nickname for the new coalition is probably going to be the least important of their problems.

With parliamentary party groups meeting for the first time since election today, the countdown to Easter, when chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said he would want to have his government in place by, starts now.

We will bring you the latest here.

It’s Tuesday, 25 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.

German conservative candidate for chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz attends a press conference following the general election in Berlin. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters