Germany rethinks its post-Merkel political council | The political parties have set themselves the goal of forming a government coalition “before Christmas”.

Germany entered a period of uncertainty on Monday after elections in which the two main parties defend their right to lead Europe’s largest economy, leaving undefined who will be Angela Merkel’s successor. The pillar of German foreign policy remains loyalty “to a strong Europe” and “good transatlantic relations”, he said. Olaf Scholz. his The Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the most voted force, with 25.7%, and also progressed by 5.2 points compared to 2017. But its advantage is discreet in percentage, since the conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian ally, the CSU, with Armin Laschet as candidate, remained at 24.1 percent.

While Scholz is leading an upward game, Laschet is the opposite.. His block fell by 8.9 points compared to 2017, reaching an unimaginable percentage in the formation of Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl or Merkel. The German political parties have set themselves the goal of forming a government coalition “before Christmas”. A tripartite government led by the Social Democrats or the Christian Democrats, in collaboration with the Greens (Di Grüne) or the Free Liberal Democrats (FDP) appears to be the most viable option.

Moderate celebration of the social democrats

Scholz, the most voted candidate on Sunday, could become the ninth chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, Berlin will have its first mayor, Social Democrat Franziska Giffey, and in the eastern “country” its co-religionist Manuela Schweig was re-elected with 40 percent. The candidate for the German Chancellery avoids any triumphant gesture, even the day after an election night that started with a draw and ended in takeoff. This responds not only to his character (he is generally referred to as boring), but to the caution perhaps acquired during her four years as vice-chancellor alongside the cautious Merkel.

SPD candidate urged not to delay formation of government alliance and say that Merkel’s conservative bloc set to step down and go into the opposition after having obtained its worst result in the legislative elections on Sunday. At a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Berlin, Scholz stressed that the European Union’s (EU) “joint action” is the basis for everything that must be undertaken in the years to come.

Scholz recalled that soon the world population will reach ten billion inhabitants and that in addition to powers like the United States, China or Russia, there will be other countries of “an Asia that is resurfacing”, and in 20 or 30 years, there will be nations in Africa and South America that will also be “relevant in the world”. If the EU is to guarantee everything that is important to it in terms of the rule of law, market economy, social state and technological progress, it will have to do it together, he said.

Reduced hours for curators

Conservative Laschet led his party to the worst outcome in its historyAlthough not everything can be attributed to the appointment of an unconvincing leader. From the orderly succession that Merkel wanted to organize when she announced her retirement in 2018, she passed to a first failure of the “chosen one”, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, then to a cockfight between her centrist wing and her law.

Laschet had barely two months at the head of the CDU. This Monday, he claimed that neither of the two major parties has a “clear” mandate to form a government, he is therefore not throwing in the towel for the moment against his Social Democratic rival.

“A government led by the CDU is the best for our country and we also feel obligated to our constituents.”Laschet said after claiming the Chancellery for his move on Sunday night. AND, although he admitted that the CDU needed to “renew”, he assumed “his role” in this failure, determined to do everything in their power to form a government majority.

Greens and Liberals, keys to forming a government

The day after the election, Scholz and Laschet ran for the Chancellery and Greens and Liberals became key elements of both to get there. The Greens hit their all-time high (14.8%), but below expectations for March, when the polls put Annalena Baerbock on her way to the Chancellery. Baerbock and party co-chair Robert Habeck represent the pragmatic line of the Green Party.

On Monday, the Greens announced the first exploratory talks to define which party they would be ready to cooperate with. A tripartite alliance with the Social Democrats would be “the most obvious option”, Habeck said, even if he did not rule out dialogue with the conservatives.

With 11.5% of the vote in Sunday’s election, the Liberal Party (FDP) is clear that it has achieved more than a fourth place. This situation is already known to the leader of the formation, Christian Lindner, who in the 2017 elections was inclined to form an alliance with the conservatives and the Greens called “Jamaica” because of the coincidence of its colors with those of the country’s flag. Caribbean (black, yellow and green). However, after several weeks, the FDP abandoned the talks without warning, plunging Germany into an unprecedented political crisis.

Four years later, the situation has changed. The liberals “seem very keen to join the government,” explains Paul Maurice, a specialist on Germany at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). In any case, its ideology is closer to that of the conservative bloc.

“Poker”

German magazine The mirror summed up the negotiations to form a government with one eloquent sentence: “The poker game begins”. After the last election in 2017, it took more than six months to reach an agreement and form the current grand coalition of conservatives and social democrats. Scholz and Laschet both aim to put a government in place before Christmas. “Germany will assume the presidency of the G7 in 2022”, warned Laschet, and this is why the new government must “arrive very quickly”.

The prospect of a long period of paralysis worries Berlin’s European partners, while the Old Continent fears being geopolitically marginalized in the face of rivalries between the United States, China and Russia. France counts on a German Chancellor “strong” “quickly” by her side, declared Monday the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Clément Beaune; while Russia hopes that the “relationship” between Moscow and Berlin “will continue and develop even more,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.