Reuters.- The German Social Democratic leader Olaf Scholz pledged in the morning to strengthen the European Union and maintain the transatlantic partnership in the three-party coalition government that he hopes to form by Christmas to replace Angela Merkel’s conservatives in Germany. .
Olaf Scholz’s SPD beat the Conservatives in Sunday’s national election and seeks to lead a government for the first time since 2005, (after Merkel), in coalition with the Greens and the liberals of the Free Democrats (FDP).
Olaf Scholz, 63, cast a sense of calm when asked whether the tight election result and the prospect of lengthy coalition negotiations send a message of instability in Germany to its European partners.
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“Germany always has coalition governments and they are always stable,” he said in fluent English next to a statue of Willy Brandt, the Cold War-time SPD chancellor who won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting dialogue between the East and West.
The SPD, the oldest party in Germany, achieved 25.7% of the votes, five percentage points higher than the 2017 federal election, ahead of 24.1% for Merkel’s conservative CDU / CSU bloc, according to interim results. The Greens got 14.8% and the FDP, 11.5%.
The recovery of the SPD confirms a certain recovery of the center-left parties in various parts of Europe, following the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president of the United States in 2020. Norway’s center-left opposition party also won an election this month.
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Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing “grand coalition,” said a government led by him would offer the United States continuity in transatlantic relations.
“The transatlantic partnership is essential for us in Germany (…) So you can rely on continuity on this issue,” he said., adding that it is important for democracy to work together in a dangerous world, even allowing for occasional “conflicts”.
Scholz indicated that he hopes to agree on a coalition before Christmas, “if possible.” However, his conservative rival Armin Laschet, 60, said he could still try to form a government despite leading his CDU-CSU bloc to its worst national electoral result.
The parties will begin probing each other on possible alliances in informal discussions on Monday. The Greens and the FDP said late on Sunday that they would first speak to each other to seek areas of compromise before beginning negotiations with the SPD or the Conservatives.
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Merkel, who did not seek a fifth term as chancellor, will continue in an interim role during the negotiations, that will set the future course of Europe’s largest economy.
German stocks rose as investors were happy about the prospect of a pro-business formation like the FDP entering an upcoming government, while ultra-left Linke did not get enough votes to be considered a coalition partner.
“From a market perspective, it should be good news that a left-wing coalition is mathematically impossible,” said Jens-Oliver Niklasch, an economist at the LBBW, adding that the other parties have enough in common to find a functional compromise.
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