Merkel ‘sceptical’ over minority rule
Future of Merkel – and Brexit
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is “very sceptical” about the idea of running a minority government after her attempt to build a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel has said she is “very sceptical” about the idea of running a minority government and a new election would be a better option if it is not possible to form a coalition.
Mrs Merkel’s attempt to build a coalition of her conservatives and two smaller parties collapsed on Sunday.
Her partners in the outgoing government, the centre-left Social Democrats, insisted on Monday that they will not renew the alliance.
No other politically plausible combination has a parliamentary majority, leaving a minority government or a new election as the only options.
Mrs Merkel said in an interview with ARD public television’s
Brennpunkt programme: “I don’t have a minority government in my plans... I don’t want to say never today, but I am very sceptical and I think that new elections would then be the better way.”
Germany’s president has urged the political parties to reconsider their positions and make it possible to form a new government.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who would have to decide on those options, said he will meet the various parties this week and urged them to rethink.
Mr Steinmeier said: “There would be incomprehension and great concern inside and outside our country, and particularly in our European neighbourhood, if the political forces in the biggest and economically strongest country in Europe of all places did not fulfil their responsibility.”
Germany’s September 24 election produced an awkward result that left Mrs Merkel’s two-party conservative bloc seeking a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats and the traditionally left-leaning Greens.
The combination of ideologically-disparate parties had not been tried before in a national government, and came to nothing when the Free Democrats walked out of talks on Sunday night.
Mrs Merkel said her conservatives had left “nothing untried to find a solution”.
She said that she “will do everything to ensure that this country is well-led through these difficult weeks”.
It is likely to be a while before the situation is resolved.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has expressed concerns about the collapse of negotiations.
Speaking in Paris yesterday, Mr Macron said: “It’s not in our interest for it to get tense.”
Preliminary coalition talks broke down late on Sunday after the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) bowed out of the negotiations with Mrs Merkel’s conservative bloc and the left-leaning Greens.
FDP leader Christian Lindner said his party pulled out of the talks rather than further compromise its principles.
Mr Macron said he had spoken to Mrs Merkel on Sunday night and believed that the declarations of pro-business Mr Lindner “were quite hard”.
The relationship between France and Germany, the eurozone’s two strongest economies, is seen as the driving force behind the European Union.
The Social Democrats had been the junior partners in a “grand coalition” government of Germany’s biggest parties since 2013. But their leaders have said since the party slumped in September to its worst election result since the Second World War that it would go into opposition.
I don’t have a minority government in my plans. German chancellor Angela Merkel.
THERESA MAY’S own election miscalculation has masked – until now – the political predicament of her German counterpart Angela Merkel whose attempt to forge a post-election coalition at the Bundestag has failed for now.
Though coalitions are one of the checks and balances that help to underpin Germany’s postwar democracy, each of the permeations following September’s poll appears unfavourable for Mrs Merkel, not least because of the rise of the far right, and her days as Europe’s most powerful politician do seem to be numbered.
With Chancellor Merkel’s ruling CDU party having lost ground to its key opponents, and clearly reluctant to call another election from a position of political weakness, this power vacuum has the potential to derail the Brexit timetable still further.
It is said that the EU will be reluctant to take decisions over Britain’s so-called ‘divorce bill’, the precursor to trade talks, while Mrs Merkel is effectively sidelined as Germany’s domestic considerations take precedence after FrankWalter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, reminded all parties yesterday of their duty to try to form a government.
However, if this happens, it’s only likely to fuel further resentment here about the EU and its handling of Brexit talks to date. Irrespective of who leads Germany – and Britain for that matter – in the future the priority is negotiating a bespoke trade deal that is mutually beneficial to the UK and European Union. Just because Mrs Merkel appears out of the equation, this should not be insurmountable if there is a modicum of pragmatism.