Will the result of Sunday legislative elections put an end to the political crisis in Germany? According to German and international media, uncertainty remains. If the alliance of the German conservatives of the CDU-CSU block, led by Friedrich Merz, won the German legislative elections on February 23 with 28.6 % of the vote, the ballot is however marked by a record score of the far right party, the alternative for Germany (AFD), with 20.8 %. While Olaf Scholz’s SPD has made its worst score since the post-war period (16.4 %). “The CDU wins but the AFD flies”, points the Italian newspaper The Stampa.
“Impossible hero”
These results, with a participation of 84 %, make Friedrich Merz a “”hero impossible, “announced Die Zeit,, who emphasizes that the conservative leader “”finds himself confronted with a mountain of mythical problems with mythical proportions, such as Hercules of Greek mythology in the face of a dozen insoluble problems “. And for good reason: a failure of his policy would lead to the certain victory of the extreme right in the next elections in four years according to the daily life, which adds:” We must not only worry about the next government, but even more of the one that will come after “.
An analysis shared by daily life Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungamong the most read in the country. “The Union has won the elections because the Germans want a change in policy. There must be now. Otherwise, AFD will be even stronger,” says the newspaper. For the German economic daily Handelsblatt,, “The result of the elections is the symbol that an uncertain country now needs: for a political change, for a real turning point, for a new German start, even if it becomes difficult”.
The Spanish daily El Pais Considers that the results “send a double message to Europe”. On the battery side, the German firewall should prevail in Parliament “with the Union of the most moderate forces against the increasingly powerful extremes”. But on the front side, “tolerance for ideas considered to be very recently dangerous has increased the profile of AFD, a party that defends political principles similar to those who have broken the continent with two world wars”.
“The most important man in Europe”
Despite his short advance in the ballot, Friedrich Merz is however guaranteed to be the future German Chancellor. “It remains to be determined how and with whom” he will direct the country, notes the newspaper The world. Affirming to have a “clear mandate” to “change” the country’s political course, the leader of the conservatives said he was aimed at the formation of a coalition government “at the latest at Easter”, in other words April 20. He also declared that he would not combine with AFD, despite calls for the foot of nationalist and anti-migrant training, as well as a parliamentary flirt during the campaign.
In addition, Friedrich Merz immediately displayed his desire to make “absolute priority” the creation of an “autonomous European defense capacity” as an alternative to “NATO in its current form” but also to “strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can, step by step, really free ourselves from the United States”. The 69 -year -old man, who will be the oldest chancellor since Konrad Adenauer, added that he would not have one day believed to say something like that “. Which makes the newspaper Spiegelthat the future chancellor is now “the most important man in Europe”, both for the future of the war in Ukraine and for transatlantic relations with the United States of the Donald Trump era.
The tone employed by Friedrich Merz with regard to the United States, when he is known to be a passionate Atlanticist, would have been “unimaginable a few months ago”, surprised the Bbc. “This is a radical change. This may seem exaggerated, but what we are currently experiencing in terms of transatlantic relations is unprecedented since the end of the Second World War, 80 years ago,” continues the British media. An observation shared by the site Politicofor whom the future Chancellor has already decided to “assume the role of European leader” despite his profile of “fervent supporter of the Atlantic who spent a large part of his professional career as a lawyer working with and for American companies”.