After Brexit, Merkel says, 'it is worth fighting for this Europe'

(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

published 15 July 2017

German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a pro-European Union note while speaking with voters Saturday, reflecting on the United Kingdom's decision to exit the EU. She argued a united Europe "is worth fighting for," touting her election slogan, "If Europe is stronger, then Germany will be stronger."

"For many people, including myself, something changed when we saw the Britons want to leave, when we were worried about the outcome of the elections in France and the Netherlands," Merkel said. "We have realized in the past few months that Europe is more than just bureaucracy and economic regulation, that Europe and living together in the European Union have something to do with war and peace, that the decades of peace after World War Two would have been completely unthinkable without the European Union."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.