GETTY Mrs Merkel's party is threatening to close the US Air Force base Ramstein

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Now under fire Angela Merkel's former defence minister is suggesting expelling the USA from Ramstein Air Base. Former State Secretary Willy Wimmer of the politically tanking CDU German Christian Democratic Party says he wants to shutter the NATO base in Rhineland-Palatinate, a state in south-western Germany. Ramstein which has been in place since the end of the second world war also hosts coalition forces including Belgian, British, Canadian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Polish personnel. But seemingly attempting to aggravate tensions in Europe he has added to diplomatic pressure brewing between the US and Russia.

GETTY Diplomatic relations between Germany and the USA are strained

GETTY First Lady Michelle Obama has visited and worked at Ramstein

In view of the absence of a threat from the east, the very need for NATO's existence came under question Willy Wimmers ex German defence minister

Both countries were forced around the table at the UN security council in New York this week over both their operating strategies intervening in the Syrian civil war which has been raging for five years. Now Mr Wimmer, who quizzed Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting of local journalists in Saint-Petersburg in April, is calling for the Americans and their partners to get out. However Mr Wimmer reserved respect for British forces who he praised for leaving Germany at the end of the Cold War. The Christian Democratic Party in Germany is facing a massive backlash amid the country's migrant crisis and a worsening finance situation.

Wikipedia Ramstein Air Force base is a strategic command centre for NATO

Under their leader Angela Merkel's stewardship they have managed to secure the resurgence of the far right with the AFD party which was set up three years ago taking almost a quarter of the vote in recent elections. Now the country's former defence supremo is turning his attention to NATO's citing them as having "wars of aggression." He said: "The legal basis for the presence of US troops in Germany is NATO. "However, after Germany's reunification, and in view of the absence of a threat from the east, the very need for NATO's existence came under question." State Secretary of the German Defence Ministry emphasised that instead of continuing to serve as a key logistics point for the coordination of US drone attacks in Africa and the Middle East, the base should be shuttered, with the space used to build housing and industry. "All that is necessary is the political will." In a probing interview with Sputnik news Mr Wimmer did not hold back when discussing his opinion on NATO.

US Air Force US Air Force personnel have been stationed in Germany for 68 years

Google The Air force base is in central Germany and has been there since 1948