vote winner merkel faces tricky coalition talks
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Vote winner Merkel faces tricky coalition talks

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Vote winner Merkel faces tricky coalition talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Berlin - AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, after celebrating her fourth election win, wakes up Monday to the double headache of an emboldened hard-right opposition party and thorny coalition talks ahead.

If the campaign was widely decried as boring, its result was a bombshell -- a populist surge weakened both Merkel's conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats, handing both their worst results in decades.

After 12 years in power and running on a promise of stability and continuity, Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc scored 32.9 percent, against 20.8 percent for the Social Democrats under challenger Martin Schulz.

The election spelt a breakthrough for the anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD), which with 13 percent became the third strongest party and vowed to "go after" Merkel over her migrant and refugee policy.

The entry of dozens of hard-right nationalist MPs to the glass-domed Bundestag chamber breaks a taboo in post-World War II Germany and was labelled as a "political earthquake" by top-selling Bild daily.

"We will take our country back," vowed the AfD's jubilant Alexander Gauland, who has recently urged Germans to be proud of their war veterans and said a politician with Turkish roots should be "disposed of in Anatolia". 

While joyful supporters of the AfD -- a party with links to the far-right French National Front and Britain's UKIP -- sang the German anthem late Sunday, hundreds of protesters outside shouted "Nazis out!"

- 'Reactionary movement' -

All other political parties have ruled out working with the AfD, whose leaders call Merkel a "traitor" for allowing in more than one million asylum seekers since the height of the refugee influx in 2015.

World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder called the four-year-old protest party "a disgraceful reactionary movement which recalls the worst of Germany's past and should be outlawed".

While Germany still digests the rise of the right-wingers, Merkel's inner circle will prepare Monday for what could be lengthy coalition talks ahead with a motley crew of smaller parties.

Party leaders will meet at 0700 GMT at Berlin headquarters to draw their conclusions from the election that some have dubbed a referendum on the refugee crisis, a contentious issue especially for her Bavarian CSU allies.

CSU chief Horst Seehofer, a vocal critic of Merkel's asylum policy, called the poll outcome a "bitter disappointment" and vowed to close the "open flank" on the right before state elections next year, signalling more trouble ahead.

A weakened Merkel must now find a new junior partner after the Social Democrats (SPD) declared they would go into opposition, to recover the support they lost while governing in Merkel's shadow.

Schulz, putting a brave face on the defeat, vowed that the 150-year-old traditional workers' party would serve as "the bulwark of democracy in this country" and stop the AfD from leading the opposition.

- 'Jamaica coalition' -
This will likely force Merkel to team up with two smaller, and very different, parties to form a lineup dubbed the "Jamaica coalition" because the three parties' colours match those of the Caribbean country's flag.

One is the pro-business and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), which scored a 10.4-percent comeback after crashing out of parliament four years ago.

The other is the left-leaning, ecologist Greens party, a pioneer of Germany's anti-nuclear movement which won nine percent on campaign pledges to drive forward the country's clean energy shift and fight climate change.

Weeks, if not months, of jockeying and horse-trading could lie ahead to build a new government and avoid snap elections.

The FDP has governed with the conservatives before, and the two have in the past been seen as "natural allies".

But its leader Christian Lindner has pointed to new "red lines", voicing scepticism especially on French President Emmanuel Macron's plans for a single eurozone budget, which Merkel has cautiously greeted.

The Greens, meanwhile, sharply differ with the FDP and CSU on key issues from immigration to the environment, pushing to expand wind farms, phase out coal and take to task car makers over the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal.

With a view to the tough challenges ahead, Bild daily called the vote outcome "a nightmare victory for Merkel".

Source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

vote winner merkel faces tricky coalition talks vote winner merkel faces tricky coalition talks

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

vote winner merkel faces tricky coalition talks vote winner merkel faces tricky coalition talks

 



GMT 06:49 2012 Saturday ,01 September

Lamitta Frangieh on her \'Facebook Romance\'

GMT 08:26 2017 Wednesday ,08 February

Qatar spending $500m a week on World Cup projects

GMT 17:00 2017 Tuesday ,27 June

Saudi Arabia rebuts fake news on Turkey, Israel

GMT 10:31 2016 Monday ,12 December

Second Sydney airport cleared for take off

GMT 05:27 2017 Sunday ,16 April

GIB Capital wins 4 EMEA Finance Awards

GMT 13:58 2016 Friday ,30 December

Australia beat Pakistan to win Test series

GMT 10:07 2017 Monday ,17 April

Mark Hamill would like to play George Lucas

GMT 12:10 2016 Tuesday ,13 December

Over 30 dead as Kenya tanker crashes, explodes

GMT 02:13 2017 Monday ,25 September

December22nd-January20th

GMT 15:39 2017 Tuesday ,03 October

Bangladesh rescues 20 Rohingya held by racket gang

GMT 02:51 2017 Friday ,10 November

Under siege, Syria doctors forced to improvise care

GMT 12:18 2015 Tuesday ,14 July

Russia sack Capello as national team coach

GMT 16:07 2017 Saturday ,26 August

ISIS Claims Attack on Shiite Mosque in Afghanistan

GMT 13:47 2017 Monday ,27 February

China blue chips post worst day in 2 months

GMT 02:56 2017 Tuesday ,25 July

President Jokowi performs Eid Prayers in Padang

GMT 16:21 2017 Tuesday ,03 October

Sisi greets Guinea on independence anniversary

GMT 04:18 2017 Saturday ,16 September

Kim and Kanye expecting third baby via surrogate
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday