BERLIN: Germany's conservative election winner Friedrich Merz said on Monday he would seek talks with the centre-left to speedily build a government as Europe faces tectonic changes in transatlantic ties. The Christian Democrats' (CDU) leader said he would reach out to the Social Democrats (SPD) of vanquished Chancellor Olaf Scholz with hopes of forging a stable ruling alliance of the two traditional big-tent parties. After the surge of the far-right AfD, Merz said the mainstream parties must answer concerns of voters drifting to the fringes, calling the AfD's record 20 per cent result "the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany".
Merz, 69, has said he wants a ruling coalition in place within two months so Berlin can act again on the European and world stage after months of paralysis since Scholz's coalition imploded in early November. Merz said on Monday he would seek good ties with the United States under Trump but was also ready for "the worst-case scenario". "All the signals we are receiving from the United States indicate that interest in Europe is decreasing," he told a post-election press conference in Berlin.
Merz also said he had a "lengthy" call with Emmanuel Macron late on Sunday, as the French president headed to Washington to meet with Trump. "We discussed the topics he wants to address with the American president, and I found that there was complete agreement between what he wants to say and what I want to say", Merz said. As the Ukraine war grinds on into a fourth year, Merz also pledged continued support for Kyiv, where other European leaders were meeting for the anniversary.
In Sunday's election, Merz's CDU/CSU bloc handily defeated Scholz's SPD, which scored a historic low of 16 per cent, and the Greens, who won 11 per cent. The conservatives are set to first enter talks with the SPD, but without Scholz, who apologised for the "bitter" defeat and will stay on in a caretaker role until a new government is formed. After a highly polarised campaign, Merz will have to enter a process of horse-trading on party policies and red lines to hammer out a platform for a future governing alliance.
The far-right AfD meanwhile celebrated what it called a "historic" win. Its strong gains, especially in its heartland in the ex-communist east, were driven by fears over immigration after a spate of attacks blamed on migrants. — AFP
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