Germany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz yesterday vowed to get to work on the arduous task of building a new coalition government, warning “the world is not waiting for us.”
Merz has warned against more paralysis in Berlin at a time when US President Donald Trump is driving head-spinning change, the German economy is in recession and society split after a polarizing election campaign.
Speaking late on Sunday, his victory dampened by a far-right surge, Merz said a united Europe must build up its own defenses as he had “no illusions at all about what is coming out of America.”
Photo: AFP
With more than 28 percent of the vote, his Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union in Bavaria bloc handily defeated German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, as the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany celebrated a record of more than 20 percent.
Following a heated campaign — dominated by the flashpoint issue of immigration after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on migrants — Merz now has to reach out to his former campaign-trail SPD foes. The conservatives will first enter talks without Scholz, who apologized for a “bitter” defeat at 16 percent, while his popular defense minister, Boris Pistorius, was expected to play a more central role.
In a TV debate late on Sunday, Merz said that he had been right to fight a “very tough election campaign” in which, on the eve of the vote, he had fumed about undefined “left-wing crazies.”
“But now we will talk to each other,” Merz said, striking a far more conciliatory tone. “We have to form a stable government as quickly as possible, with a good, stable majority.”
Merz must seek to establish communications with Trump, who has unsettled Ukraine and its European backers by reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time he must enter a process of horse-trading on party policies and red lines to hammer out a platform for a governing alliance.
“These are difficult starting conditions for a new German government, which is facing Herculean tasks in domestic and foreign policy,” said Cornelia Woll of the Hertie School Berlin. “One might hope that Germany will nevertheless be able to act quickly, so that it does not just have to watch how Trump and Putin shape the future.”
In an early positive response, Trump congratulated the conservatives on their win, describing it as “a great day for Germany, and for the United States.”
“The people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration,” said Trump, whose surrogates have hounded Scholz’s outgoing administration.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that he looked forward to working with Merz for a “strong and sovereign Europe.”
“In this period of uncertainty, we are united to face the great challenges of the world and of our continent,” he wrote on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also congratulated Merz, saying he looked forward to working with Germany to “strengthen Europe.”
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS