The outgoing Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, congratulated her rivals from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) on their recent electoral triumph, a gesture that the German media interpret as a way to dignify Olaf Scholz as the next chancellor. For its part, the candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)Armin Laschet also added himself to the congratulations, albeit discreetly, with a letter he sent to Scholz on Wednesday.
Although the chancellor has not yet publicly commented on the results of the elections, this Wednesday the federal press office of the German government reported that on Monday Merkel “had congratulated the Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor for his electoral success”. On Sunday, the Social Democrats led by Scholz won 25.7 percent of the vote.
“I’m so sorry”
After a historic defeat of the CDU, Laschet is at the center of criticism from his own coalition, the Union -CDU together with CSU, the Bavarian Christian Social Union-. “I’m so sorry”, the candidate apologized to the deputies after the defeat of the coalition admitting the mistakes he made as the main candidate, according to the weekly Der sppiegel. But within the coalition there are still troubles. Who will take responsibility now? (…) Entire regional groups have been reduced by half ”asked the vice president of the parliamentary group, Gitta Connemann. For the German weekly “this can be understood as an indirect request for Laschet to step back.”
Laschet still sees the possibility of being head of government if he manages to form the so-called Jamaica coalition together with the FDP (Liberals, 11.5 percent) and the Greens (14.8 percent). Although his aspirations had already collided with the refusal of the CSU leader Markus Soeder, who claimed that Scholz had “a better chance of becoming chancellor at this point, clearly”. “No mandate to govern can be morally legitimized on the basis of this electoral result” of the Conservatives, which reached their all-time low since 1949, well below 30 percent of the vote, Soeder told a news conference.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the SPD, Scholz, points to a semaphore coalition that would be formed by the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. In recent decades, the Greens have had greater affinity with the Social Democrats, while the FDP, a right-wing party, was generally closer to Merkel’s Union.
“Probing for coincidences”
Green’s Candidate Annalena Baerbock and the leader of the FDP, Christian Lindner, they uploaded a photo of them together with the other leader of the Greens, Robert Habeck and the secretary general of the FDP, Volker Wissing. “In search of a new government, we are probing coincidences about things that divide us, and even finding some”they said in the posts. “Times that are exciting,” they added.
Although both Baerbock and Wissing declined to give additional details due to a confidentiality agreement they reached. Both leaders reported that they agreed to meet with Union leaders, the leader of the FDP will do so on Saturday, and the Greens will do so next week. While on Sunday they will meet separately with the leaders of the SPD.
The new lower house of the German Parliament, which will be made up of 735 deputies, is scheduled to hold its first session next month.
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