The conservative election winner of Germany, Friedrich Merz, faced a struggle uphill to build a coalition government on Monday, a day after an election that saw a record performance of the right.
Merz has warned against more paralysis in Berlin at the time when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is promoting the change of turn in the head, the German economy is in recession and society is divided after a polarizing campaign.
In a publication on X, Merz insisted on Ukraine “must be part of the peace negotiations” after Trump worried the European allies when he arrived at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Europe is still firmly next to Ukraine,” said Merz, while European leaders gathered in kyiv to commemorate the third anniversary of Russia’s large -scale invasion.
Speaking on Sunday night, his victory decreased by an increase on the extreme right, Merz had warned that a united Europe had to develop his own defenses, since he had no “illusions about what leaves the United States.”
With more than 28 percent of the votes, the Merz CDU/CSU block easily defeated the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Greens, since the anti -immigration alternative for Germany (AFD) celebrated a record of more than 20 percent.
After a heated campaign, dominated by the problem of Flashpoint immigration after a series of mortal attacks attributed to migrants, Merz will now have to communicate with his former SPD enemies of the campaign.
‘Herculean tasks’
The conservatives will first enter into conversations without Scholz, who apologized for the “bitter” defeat of SPD at 16 %, while its popular Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, was expected to play a more central role.
Merz must try to establish communications with Trump, who said that the electoral victory of the conservatives was a “great day for Germany” in an early response.
“The people of Germany tired of the common senseless agenda, especially in energy and immigration,” Trump said, whose substitutes have harassed Scholz’s outgoing administration.
Merz will have to enter a horses trade process in party policies and red lines to hammer a platform for a future government alliance.
“These are difficult starting conditions for a new German government, which faces Herculean tasks in national and foreign politics,” said Cornelia Woll of the Hertie Berlin school.
“One could expect Germany to act quickly, so that it not only has to do with how Trump and Putin shape the future.”
After the vote, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he hoped to work together with Merz for a “strong and sovereign Europe”, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped to work with Germany to “strengthen Europe.”
Germany’s political crisis was caused by the dispute in the Tres Roads of Scholz, which separated on November 6, the day Trump was re -elected. Woll said that “Germany has chosen the conservative turn, but forming a government could be difficult” after the CDU/CSU fell almost two points below its 30 percent target.
‘Disappointed and frustrated’
The early provisional results on Monday suggested that Merz had dodged a bullet after the “conservative of the left” Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) seemed to have lost by a five -PC cutting mark to enter Bundestag.
Less matches make it easier to win a majority, and have the BSW in Parliament would have forced a coalition of three potholes such as the one led by Scholz.
The Liberal FDP, which caused the collapse of the Scholz government, also lost the obstacle of five percent and crashed from Bundestag.
Whatever happens, Merz and all other parties have promised to reject the Oberturas of the AFD and keep them out of power, behind a “firewall” of non -cooperation.
Alice Weidel, the AFD chancellor candidate for the elections, asked other parties on Monday to withdraw her policy of refusing to cooperate with her party.
“They cannot exclude millions of voters. That is antidemocratic. The Firewall must leave, no functional democracy has a Firewall, ”he said.
Joerg Seiffert, 69, therapist in Berlin, said he was “very disappointed and frustrated by the emergence of the AFD.”
“The worst would be if the CDU joined forces with the AFD after all. And I really don’t know today if it wouldn’t really happen, “he said.
The pensioner Marlies Schaefer, 74, said it was “good that Merz won the elections,” but “he would have thought he would have won for more.”
