Traditionally, Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), the party of Angela Merkel, have been closely aligned with the Republican Party. Merkel even supported (initially) George W. Bush and the US invasion of Iraq. Since becoming chancellor, however, Angela Merkel and her party have staked out a number of progressive positions - embracing renewable energy, implementing a minimum wage, fighting intolerance against immigrants, just to name a few - while the Republican Party has moved further to the extreme right, becoming the Party of Jefferson Davis.
Today the leadership of the CDU says it can no longer stand with the Republicans. Instead, the conservatives will support Hillary Clinton: (note: my translation).
After Hillary Clinton announced that she's running for president as the Democratic candidate, the CDU decided to abandon its traditional orientation with the conservative Republicans. "The fundamental message of the GOP is today no longer aligned with the Christian Democratic principles, " said Armin Laschet, leaders of the CDU in North-Rhine Westphalia and deputy chairman of the national party. "The Republicans fight against the social market economy; on the one hand they demand tax breaks for the super-wealthy while on the other they seek to eliminate universal health insurance. Their aggressive rejection of multilateral diplomacy for resolving international conflicts is not appropriate for the 21st century. [...] In the last presidential election the Republicans were only able to achieve a majority among older white men. Immigrants, women and younger voters went with the Democrats."
While this shift in support from a traditional European ally may be disappointing to some in the GOP, they can still count on support in France from Marine Le Pen's neo-fascist Front National, whose anti-immigrant program mirrors the GOP platform.