Former Democratic US vice presidential candidate Tim Walz hopes that the political situation in the US will change in the midterm elections in November next year. The entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be up for re-election, with the midterms seen as a vote on the policies of the incumbent US president halfway through his term. In the presidential election last year, only around a third of voters voted for Donald Trump, a third for him and presidential candidate Kamala Harris and a third did not vote at all, said Walz at an event organized by Aspen Institute and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. He does not believe that non-voters would also stay at home in the next election. “But we'll find that out in eleven months at the midterms. That's what we're going to focus on. ”

Walz, governor of Minnesota since 2019, has toured Germany in recent days with a delegation of over 70 people to promote cooperation and investments in his state, including in Düsseldorf as a guest of the Amerikahaus. These institutes were set up in Germany after the Second World War to promote democracy, the rule of law and free trade. “We need exactly such an Amerikahaus in America now,” Walz exclaimed. He said he was not an alarmist, but rather, as a former high school teacher, inevitably cautious, but since January, everything has pointed to the erosion of democracy and human rights in the US. At the beginning of the year, he predicted that people should prepare for the worst, and unfortunately, he was right.

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Saudi Arabia, for whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Trump had just given a state dinner at the White House, was never held accountable for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The president also defended the crime and attacked Khashoggi instead. And he had just called for the public execution of US senators who served in the military and simply pointed out that everyone there was taught to reject illegal orders and to make this public. Trump himself might be preparing such orders.

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Walz pointed out that up to now there has been extensive consistency in US foreign policy and transatlantic relations regardless of the political affiliation of the presidents. Together with the Europeans, they were convinced that NATO was fundamentally important for the security of all states, that transatlantic trade also benefits everyone and that if everyone stuck together, things would get a little better. At the Munich Security Conference, however, Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense (War) Secretary Pete Hegseth described a very different worldview.

“I ask myself, and the question is also directed at my fellow governors who have autonomy and authority: Are we doing enough (about this)?” Walz exclaimed. He was referring the effects of trade restrictions, the withdrawal of American soft power and the dissolution of USAid. For example, the fight against AIDS in Africa is now at risk. “My red line is: If you're not threatened with prison every week, like some of us, including me, then you're not doing enough.” Walz acknowledged that the Americans are currently not reliable partners and praised the commitment of the Europeans, particularly in the Ukraine crisis, despite the massive impact on their own economies and societies through the short-term increase in defense spending and the integration of war refugees.

The governor advertised that the US states are laboratories for democracy, with the opportunity to direct their own policies on climate change or innovation, for example. All of them are very different. Minnesota, for example, has closer ties to Canada than to the US. When Trump referred to Canada as the 51st US state, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, Doug Ford, countered that Minnesota could then become the eleventh province in Canada. According to Walz, the extremely water-rich state in the Midwest of the US, with a population of around 5.8 million, is committed to consistent decarbonization by 2040. He named the health sector, sustainable agriculture, and energy as possible areas of cooperation with German companies and scientists.

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