Alice Weidel, the head of the surging far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) accused Merz’s conservatives of war-mongering for even considering the idea of ground troops, slamming it as “dangerous and irresponsible”.

Even Merz’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned sending troops to Ukraine “would probably overwhelm us”.

There is unease in Germany over troop deployments given its Nazi past and more recent deployments to Afghanistan and Mali that were widely seen as failures. There is also a backlash against spending billions of euros on military aid for Ukraine when Germany’s own economy is struggling.