German Chancellor Angela Merkel, victorious in national elections but wounded by a fall in support for her party and a sharp rise for the far right, faced the complex task Monday of cobbling together a government for her fourth and final term.
The Sunday vote left Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) well ahead of all other parties in the race for the German Parliament, known as the Bundestag.
But the party’s support fell well short of the mark it set four years ago, and her coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), faced a similarly steep decline.
The SPD immediately announced it would not join Merkel for another term, leaving her with just one functional option for forming a new government: a never-before-tried three-way coalition among her conservatives, the socially liberal and pro-business Free Democrats and the Green Party.
With weeks of tough negotiations likely to come, Merkel must also reckon with the dramatic gains of the far-right, anti-Islam AfD, which placed third with 12.6 percent of the vote and is set to become the first far-right party in the Bundestag in more than half a century. The party’s vote total was nearly triple its 2013 result, and it matches the outer limit of its support in pre-election polls
The groundswell of support upended any notion that Europe’s largest economy and most important geo*political player is immune to the populist currents roiling other democracies across the West. It also revealed the depths of lingering resentment toward Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than a million asylum seekers amid the European refugee crisis.
Taken together, the outcome is likely to complicate Merkel’s ambitions for her final term, while giving the bombastic AfD a prominent platform to influence politics in a country where civility and consensus have long been prized.
“It’s a huge change in the political landscape,” said Hans Kundnani, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “It will change the nature of debate in the Bundestag.”
True to its combative reputation, the party wasted no time in vowing to use its voice in the Bundestag, the larger house in Parliament, to cause trouble for the government — including by investigating Merkel’s refugee-related decision-making
But the party will have to overcome fierce internal divisions if it wants to make good on its pledge. Those were laid bare Monday morning when one of the party’s most visible personalities, co-chairwoman Frauke Petry, announced she would not be joining the AfD’s caucus in Parliament. She abruptly left a press conference with other AfD members Monday without taking questions.
Despite the AfD’s gains, Sunday’s results represented at least a partial affirmation of Merkel’s emphasis on Germany’s stability and economic prosperity at a time of upheaval elsewhere around the globe. They clear the way for her to extend her 12-year stewardship to 16, which would tie the record for postwar Germany.
Merkel’s CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won 33 percent — down several points from what most pre-election polls had predicted, and 8.5 points lower than its result in 2013. The vote share was among the lowest ever for the party, which has governed Germany for most of the nation’s postwar history.
While promising to remain as chancellor, Merkel also acknowledged the “strong challenge” from the AfD and its voters.
“We want to win them back,” she said. “We want to address their fears and concerns.”
The SPD placed a distant second with 20.5 percent of the vote, a dismal result for Merkel’s coalition partner of the past four years.
“Taking in so many refugees split the nation, that has become clear,” SPD leader Martin Schulz told supporters. “We didn’t manage to convince a segment of our society that our country is strong enough to handle the task.”
Schulz said the party would not join another government, and would instead go into opposition to offer voters a clear alternative to the CDU for the next election.
The decision leaves Merkel to try to forge a so-called Jamaica coalition, a reference to the colors of the three parties that would take part: Merkel’s CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens.
The Sunday vote left Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) well ahead of all other parties in the race for the German Parliament, known as the Bundestag.
But the party’s support fell well short of the mark it set four years ago, and her coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), faced a similarly steep decline.
The SPD immediately announced it would not join Merkel for another term, leaving her with just one functional option for forming a new government: a never-before-tried three-way coalition among her conservatives, the socially liberal and pro-business Free Democrats and the Green Party.
With weeks of tough negotiations likely to come, Merkel must also reckon with the dramatic gains of the far-right, anti-Islam AfD, which placed third with 12.6 percent of the vote and is set to become the first far-right party in the Bundestag in more than half a century. The party’s vote total was nearly triple its 2013 result, and it matches the outer limit of its support in pre-election polls
The groundswell of support upended any notion that Europe’s largest economy and most important geo*political player is immune to the populist currents roiling other democracies across the West. It also revealed the depths of lingering resentment toward Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than a million asylum seekers amid the European refugee crisis.
Taken together, the outcome is likely to complicate Merkel’s ambitions for her final term, while giving the bombastic AfD a prominent platform to influence politics in a country where civility and consensus have long been prized.
“It’s a huge change in the political landscape,” said Hans Kundnani, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “It will change the nature of debate in the Bundestag.”
True to its combative reputation, the party wasted no time in vowing to use its voice in the Bundestag, the larger house in Parliament, to cause trouble for the government — including by investigating Merkel’s refugee-related decision-making
But the party will have to overcome fierce internal divisions if it wants to make good on its pledge. Those were laid bare Monday morning when one of the party’s most visible personalities, co-chairwoman Frauke Petry, announced she would not be joining the AfD’s caucus in Parliament. She abruptly left a press conference with other AfD members Monday without taking questions.
Despite the AfD’s gains, Sunday’s results represented at least a partial affirmation of Merkel’s emphasis on Germany’s stability and economic prosperity at a time of upheaval elsewhere around the globe. They clear the way for her to extend her 12-year stewardship to 16, which would tie the record for postwar Germany.
Merkel’s CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won 33 percent — down several points from what most pre-election polls had predicted, and 8.5 points lower than its result in 2013. The vote share was among the lowest ever for the party, which has governed Germany for most of the nation’s postwar history.
While promising to remain as chancellor, Merkel also acknowledged the “strong challenge” from the AfD and its voters.
“We want to win them back,” she said. “We want to address their fears and concerns.”
The SPD placed a distant second with 20.5 percent of the vote, a dismal result for Merkel’s coalition partner of the past four years.
“Taking in so many refugees split the nation, that has become clear,” SPD leader Martin Schulz told supporters. “We didn’t manage to convince a segment of our society that our country is strong enough to handle the task.”
Schulz said the party would not join another government, and would instead go into opposition to offer voters a clear alternative to the CDU for the next election.
The decision leaves Merkel to try to forge a so-called Jamaica coalition, a reference to the colors of the three parties that would take part: Merkel’s CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens.
