German minister warns of 'explosive situation' after Trump's declaration of victory

German Defence Minister on Wednesday disapproved of US President Donald Trump's assertion saying that he had already won US Presidential Elections 2020. Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that US was facing a "very explosive situation" as a result of President Donald Trump's assertion.

"This election has not been decided... votes are still being counted," Kramp-Karrenbauer told public broadcaster ZDF. She further said that Trump could create a constitutional crisis in the USA.

Donald Trump on Wednesday addressed his supporters with his wife and First Lady Melania Trump and said that he believed that he had won the election.

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"This is a major fraud on our country so we are going to Supreme Court as far as I am concerned we have already won it," said Trump.

German Defence Minister focussed on this very assertion and said that a constitutional crisis that may unfold was "something that must deeply concern us"

The minister, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party, said it appeared "the battle over the legitimacy of the result, however it turns out, has begun".

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Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged in the past the US Election 2020 was "rigged". He had also said that he would declare victory if early trends during the vote count favoured. He is seemed to have followed up on this although the race was close between him and Joe Biden when counting of votes began.

German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer admitted that German-US relationship had faced "a tough test in the past four years" with fierce Trump criticism of Berlin over trade and military spending.

However, she said, "this friendship is more than a question of which administration is currently in the White House", saying she dismissed calls in Germany to "decouple ourselves from the United States".

But Kramp-Karrenbauer stressed that regardless of the ultimate outcome of the US vote, Europe would need to become more self-sufficient.

"We will have to do a lot more for our own interests -- both as Germany and in particular with the other Europeans," she said.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz echoed the sentiment, saying that given the developments in the United States, Europe needed to strengthen its own "sovereignty" so that "a rules-based global order can exist".

"That is why we need to take this opportunity to make Europe strong," he told reporters in Berlin.

(With AFP inputs)