Merkel vows to get down to business

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel promised yesterday that her new government would start work swiftly and lend a strong voice to Europe, a day after she secured a coalition for her fourth term.

Germany’s second biggest party, the Social Democrats (SPD), finally gave the allclear to renew their partnership with Merkel’s conservatives on Sunday, ending a political impasse that had plagued the country since September’s inconclusive election.

“Almost six months later, people expect something to happen,” Merkel said.

“We see that Europe faces challenges and that a strong voice from Germany, along with that of France is necessary,” she said, pointing to a litany of issues ranging from world trade to the war in Syria.

“All that requires us to begin work quickly in the government,” she said.

European partners had been anxiously watching as the leader of the EU’s biggest economy struggled to find partners to govern with since September.

Both Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left SPD had taken a hammering at the ballot box as many Germans frustrated about the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015 voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The far-right party, which garnered nearly 13% in the September election, also vowed to go after Merkel’s CDU over its continuation of the immigration policy without imposing a limit.

The presence of the AfD has shaken up the Bundestag, as the anti-immigration group’s politicians challenge post-war Germany’s culture of remembrance of the Nazi era.

Wary of ceding further ground to the Islamophobic protest party, Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD have recognised that more of the same will not suffice.