Germany’s Friedrich Merz promised to “achieve” “independence” from the United States after his center-right block won the federal elections, and put him at the top of a potentially complex coalition in a time of upheaval for Europe.
In an election in which Germany moved to the right, Merz ‘Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) came first on Sunday with 28.6 percent of the vote, so that at least another coalition partner needed to secure a working parliamentary majority.
Germany’s right -wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) took second place with its highest proportion of voices of around 21 percent.
Within a few hours after the surveys have been completed, Merz explained that Germany would have to make its security agreements fundamentally new and ended a decades of trust in Washington, since US President Donald Trump was “largely indifferent”.
Merz said: “I am in close contact with many prime ministers – government director of the EU. And it must be an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as soon as possible so that we can actually reach independence from the USA step by step.
“I didn’t think I would have to say something like that. . . But according to Donald Trump, it is clear that the Americans, at least this American government, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe. “
Merz, who said he was not sure about the future of NATO, also emphasized Washington’s interventions in the German election campaign and compared them to Russian interference.
The Trump government opened the AfD openly and criticized the mainstream politicians in Germany to work with a party that has flirted with slogans of the Nazi era, asks the end of the sanctions against Russia and the mass shifts of Migrants demanded.
Trump has blindly made Europe in the past few weeks by having direct talks with Russia about the end of the war in Ukraine and threatened to pull the security guarantees of the United States from the continent. Germany houses the largest contingent of the American troops stationed in Europe.
On Sunday before, Trump described the election result as proof that “the Germany population was fed up with the agenda without common sense, especially in terms of energy and immigration, which has been asserted for so many years”.
Merz has no way of forming a coalition with the outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz ‘Social Democratic Party who won just more than 16 percent of the votes – the worst result since 1887.
On Sunday evening, however, it remained unclear whether Merz was able to negotiate a prevailing majority that is strong enough to carry out basic reforms, including revisions of a constitutionally anchored limit for public loans.
“I know the selection of the challenge that lies ahead of us,” said Merz. “I am closer with it with the greatest respect. And I know it won’t be easy. “
“We had a hard campaign, but now we’ll talk to each other,” said Merz, adding that it might be even more difficult to form a coalition than he expected during the election campaign.
His political calculations were complicated by the fact that Merz ‘traditional partner, the Pro-Business-Free Democrats (FDP), was on the way to leave the 5 percent threshold in order to enter the Bundestag.
According to the exit survey, the voter turnout of the voters reached the highest since German reunification in 1990 at a level of 84 percent.
The preliminary results are a big swing in Germany after a series of fatal attacks by migrants were fueled against an immigrant mood.
The German voters Mied Scholz’s unpopular coalition with the Greens and the FDP. The largest economy in the euro zone has stagnated in the past two years when German industry dealt with high energy prices and Chinese competition.
Scholz stated that after “a bitter result” from politics at the forefront.
Alice Weidel, the AfD-CO manager, celebrated the party, which almost doubled from 2021, to make the largest right-wing extremist profits in Germany since World War II.
“We had a great campaign,” said Weidel, when she emphasized that her party was open to coalition talks with the CDU/CSU to meet “The Will of the People”.
After three years of fighting among the top members of Scholz ‘Brectious Coalition, strategists from the CDU and their Bavarian sister party wanted to avoid the CSU to need more than one partner to form a government.
In a potentially helpful result for Merz, the left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) seemed to find only a few seats in parliament, which would have made it impossible for the CDU/CSU to build a functioning majority with only the SPD.
As part of the German electoral system, parties that win less than 5 percent of the votes are excluded from the parliament and their voices are redistributed, which strengthens the successful groups.
The next parliament should contain five parties, including the Greens, AfD and the distant left.
Holger Schmieding, economist at Berenberg Bank, warned of a “severe risk” that Fringe may be strong enough to block changes in the German constitution.
“If so, you could empty any loosening of the debt anchored in the constitution”, while it was “crucial to increase the expenditure for the military and Ukraine and to facilitate the tax burden for workers and companies,” he added.
Data visualization by Martin Stabe and Jonathan Vincent
