Merkel fails to form coalition
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared failure in her bid to form a new government, throwing the future of Europe’s longest-serving leader into doubt and potentially pointing the world’s fourthbiggest economy toward new elections.
A month of exploratory coalition talks ended in a dramatic collapse on Sunday as a dispute over migration policy led the Free Democratic Party (FDP), one of the prospective partners, to walk out on a deal.
After 12 years in office that have made her Europe’s anchor of stability in times of crisis, Ms Merkel said she’s staying on as acting chancellor and was to consult with Germany’s president yesterday on what comes next.
The collapse signals the limit of her pragmatic, non-ideological style of governing and leaves her options for staying in power for another four years dramatically narrowed.
“It’s a day at the very least for a profound examination of Germany’s future,” Ms Merkel, 63, told reporters after the talks ended. “As chancellor, as caretaker chancellor, I will do everything to make sure this country continues to be well governed through the tough weeks ahead.”
Possibilities now include setting up a minority government headed by her Christian Democratic-led bloc or asking President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to order a national election just months after the last one in September. Both scenarios would be uncharted territory for Germany, which has had only eight chancellors in the seven decades since World War II.
The upshot is that Europe’s dominant country remains hamstrung on the global stage, potentially affecting everything from policy toward the European Union, Turkey and Russia to government spending and cuts in carbon emissions.
Ms Merkel already has made it clear that Germany’s euro-area policy is on hold until there’s a new government.
‘‘A chance has been missed to go beyond ideological boundaries and agree realistic solutions,” Eric Schweitzer, head of Germany’s DIHK chamber of industry and commerce, said. “But the DIHK is confident that all responsible parties will ultimately be capable of finding sensible compromises.”
Ms Merkel’s biggest setback since she first won the chancellorship in 2005 follows unusually contentious exploratory talks. Policy disagreements on immigration, climate and energy proved so entrenched that even Ms Merkel, once dubbed “the queen of the backrooms”, couldn’t bridge them.
FDP chairman Christian Lindner said the draft agreement to enter into formal coalition talks was riddled with “countless contradictions”. Mr Lindner has called for a “turnaround” plan for Germany’s economy with larger cuts in income taxes and more business-friendly approach. The FDP also wants to allow countries to leave the euro in an orderly way without quitting the EU.
Disagreements about limiting migration to Germany dogged the exploratory talks from the start.
It’s a measure of the fallout from Germany’s last election, which saw the antiimmigration Alternative for Germany party enter parliament with 12.6% of the vote while Ms Merkel’s bloc declined to its lowest share since 1949.
Many former voters of the CDU and its Bavarian CSU sister party switched allegiance to Alternative for Germany, which ran against the political establishment and Ms Merkel’s liberal asylum policy in particular.
During last summer’s election campaign, the chancellor defended her openborders stance during Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016, saying she’s convinced she did the right thing.