Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Germany’s Merkel wins fourth term
Chancellor to seek new coalition; rival party vows opposition
BERLIN — Angela Merkel on Sunday won a fourth term as German chancellor in a federal election that also lifted a far-right party into Parliament, projections showed.
Merkel’s main center-left rivals, the Social Democrats, slid to their worst result since World War II, projections showed. The party, led by Merkel’s challenger Martin Schulz, vowed immediately to leave her coalition government and go into opposition.
The outcome puts Merkel on course for a fourth term as chancellor — but means that she likely faces the tricky task of forming a new coalition government with two new partners. Merkel acknowledged that it would take time, but said that “we live in stormy times” and other parties should show responsibility.
“I have the intention of achieving a stable government in Germany, and that has been a hallmark” of the country, she said.
Projections showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and their Bavaria-only allies, the Christian Social Union, winning about a third of the vote — down from 41.5 percent four years ago. It was one of their weakest postwar showings.
Schulz’s Social Democrats were trailing far behind. The party has served since 2013 as the junior partner in a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties under Merkel.
“This is a bitter defeat for the [Social Democrats], and at the same time it’s a historic watershed in our democracy,” Thomas Oppermann, the Social Democrats’ caucus chairman, said on ARD television. The Social Democrats party has decided to go into opposition and not renew the coalition with Merkel’s party, he said.
Merkel was greeted at her party’s headquarters by supporters applauding and chanting “Angie!”
“Of course, we would have preferred a better result, that is completely clear,” she said. “But we mustn’t forget that we have had an extremely challenging parliamentary term behind us.”
“We have a mandate to form a new government, and no government can be formed against us,” Merkel added.
“We want to win back [Alternative for Germany] voters by solving problems, by taking account of their concerns and fears, and above all with good policies,” Merkel added.
Smaller parties were the chief beneficiaries of the erosion in support for Germany’s traditionally dominant parties — above all the right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD. The party capitalized on discontent with established politicians but particularly targeted those angry over the influx of more than 1 million mostly Muslim migrants into Germany in the past two years under Merkel.
Alternative for Germany party co-leader Alexander Gauland vowed that “we will take our country back” and promised to “chase” Merkel.
“This is a big day in our party’s history. We have entered the Bundestag and we will change this country,” Gauland said.
Outsides Alternative for Germany’s election party, hundreds of protesters shouted “all Berlin hates the AfD,” “Nazi pigs,” and other slogans, while several protesters threw bottles as police kept them away from the building.
Another big winner Sunday was the pro-business Free Democratic Party. Their better-than-forecast performance allows them to re-enter the Bundestag after a fouryear absence.
“In a country that is big on schadenfreude, our comeback is an encouraging message — after failure, a new beginning is possible,” party leader Christian Lindner told supporters.
The traditionally left-leaning Greens and the Left Party also were both projected to stay in Parliament.
The new Parliament will have six caucuses, compared with four previously, and the Social Democrats said they intend to lead the opposition.
“We have suffered a crushing election defeat,” Schulz said. “It is completely clear that the role the voters have given us is as the opposition.”
Referring to the Alternative for Germany’s third-place finish, he said “there cannot be a far-right party leading the opposition in Germany.”
If the Social Democrats stick to their pledge, Merkel will effectively have only one option to form her new government: teaming up with the Free Democrats and the Greens in an alliance that has never yet been tried in a national German government.
That combination — known as a “Jamaica” coalition because the parties’ colors match those of that Caribbean nation’s flag — will have to overcome the traditional distrust between both the Free Democrats and the Greens and between parts of Merkel’s conservative bloc and the Greens.
The Left Party is incompatible with the conservatives and all have voted not to work with Alternative for Germany.
“Jamaica is doable,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the Christian Democratic Union state prime minster of Saarland, told broadcaster ZDF.
The first task for Merkel is to forge a coalition that enables her to govern, a process that’s likely to take months. Once a government is in place, Merkel will face huge global expectations, such as shoring up the eurozone together with France, setting Europe’s tone in its dealings with the U.S. under President Donald Trump, and dealing with the diesel-emissions crisis that threatens Germany’s dominance in producing luxury cars.