Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has sparked outrage by threatening to cut EU funding to Slovakia over its growing defiance of Brussels—drawing a fiery response from Slovak PM Robert Fico.

Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has sparked outrage by threatening to cut EU funding to Slovakia over its growing defiance of Brussels—drawing a fiery response from Slovak PM Robert Fico, who slammed the warning as "unacceptable" and accused Berlin of trying to enforce a single opinion across Europe. As Fico doubles down on his sovereign stance and alignment with Viktor Orban, tensions inside the EU are boiling over, exposing deep fractures that could shake the bloc's very foundation.