Franziska Brantner, co‑chair of the Greens, urged Europe to increase its pace and confidence in dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump on digital independence. “In the next five to ten years we must build secure European clouds, defence and energy suppliers, and safe state interfaces” she told the T‑Online news portal. Regarding cloud, data centres and AI factories, she added: “The message is now clear – invest together, then, as a state, deliberately purchase European technology, bring actors together and agree on usage”.
Brantner criticised that some Europeans and the EU Commission hesitate to confront the U.S. president. “Donald Trump constantly threats – that is why I want Europe to become more independent” she said. She noted that the U.S. president responds to strength and sees Europe as an attractive market, an opportunity which can be leveraged confidently: “We are digitally, energy‑wise, and in defence dependent. I cannot rule out the scenario that Trump wakes one morning and thinks, ‘I’ll impose a 20 % export tariff on LNG from the U.S. if Brussels applies its digital laws against U.S. firms.'”
She also warned that “U.S. tech entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel” are attempting to dismantle essential regulation under the pretext of deregulation, eroding protection standards. “I stand firmly against that” she said. “In certain areas we also need new safeguards – for example, banning technology that extracts and sexualises people digitally without their consent, as with Grok”.
