Germany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz yesterday vowed to get to work on the arduous task of building a new coalition government, warning “the world is not waiting for us.”
Merz has warned against more paralysis in Berlin at a time when US President Donald Trump is driving head-spinning change, the German economy is in recession and society split after a polarizing election campaign.
Speaking late on Sunday, his victory dampened by a far-right surge, Merz said a united Europe must build up its own defenses as he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America.”
Photo: AFP
With more than 28 percent of the vote, his Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union in Bavaria bloc handily defeated German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, as the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany celebrated a record of more than 20 percent.
Following a heated campaign — dominated by the flashpoint issue of immigration after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on migrants — Merz now has to reach out to his former campaign-trail SPD foes. The conservatives will first enter talks without Scholz, who apologized for a “bitter” defeat at 16 percent, while his popular defense minister, Boris Pistorius, was expected to play a more central role.
In a TV debate late on Sunday, Merz said that he had been right to fight a “very tough election campaign” in which, on the eve of the vote, he had fumed about undefined “left-wing crazies.”
“But now we will talk to each other,” Merz said, striking a far more conciliatory tone. “We have to form a stable government as quickly as possible, with a good, stable majority.”
Merz must seek to establish communications with Trump, who has unsettled Ukraine and its European backers by reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time he must enter a process of horse-trading on party policies and red lines to hammer out a platform for a governing alliance.
“These are difficult starting conditions for a new German government, which is facing Herculean tasks in domestic and foreign policy,” said Cornelia Woll of the Hertie School Berlin. “One might hope that Germany will nevertheless be able to act quickly, so that it does not just have to watch how Trump and Putin shape the future.”
In an early positive response, Trump congratulated the conservatives on their win, describing it as “a great day for Germany, and for the United States.”
“The people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration,” said Trump, whose surrogates have hounded Scholz’s outgoing administration.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that he looked forward to working with Merz for a “strong and sovereign Europe.”
“In this period of uncertainty, we are united to face the great challenges of the world and of our continent,” he wrote on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also congratulated Merz, saying he looked forward to working with Germany to “strengthen Europe.”
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