Merkel vows success of nationalists will not change policies
German chancellor Angela Merkel has defended an election campaign which left her conservative bloc significantly weakened despite finishing in first place, as she embarked on what could be a lengthy quest to form a new government.
Mrs Merkel said the success of the nationalist, antimigrant party Alternative for Germany, (AFD), which finished third in Sunday’s election, will not influence her Christian Democratic Union’s foreign, European and refugee policies.
She once more defended her decision to let in nearly 900,000 migrants and refugees, saying Germany would not again face the humanitarian crisis which led to it.
She said: “I can’t see what we should have done differently.
“I thought this campaign through well.” The centre-left Social Democratic Party has been Mrs Merkel’s partners in a “grand coalition” since 2013.
The party finished second, but leader Martin Schulz said its tremendously weak showing would require the Social Democrats “to be a strong opposition”.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has no tradition of minority governments, and Mrs Merkel has made clear she does not want to go down that route.
This would be a tall order in any case, as her bloc only holds 246 of the new parliament’s 709 seats.
The most politically plausible option so far is a threeway coalition with the probusiness Free Democrats and the traditionally left-leaning Greens.
The combination, called a “Jamaica” coalition because the parties’ colours match those of the Caribbean nation’s flag, has never been tried before in a national government. Mrs Merkel said she will seek talks with the two parties, as well as with the Social Democrats.
There is unlikely to be much movement before a state election 15 October in Lower Saxony, one of Germany’s most populous states.
The chancellor said: “It is important that Germany gets a good, stable government.
“All parties ... have a responsibility that we get a stable government.”
Mrs Merkel will have to bridge differences between the Free Democrats and Greens.
The parties have a tradition of mutual suspicion as well as differences on issues including environmental policy, European financial policy and the car industry’s future.
Mrs Merkel also faces pressure from conservative allies for an effective response to the third-place finish of the nationalist AFD.