German election: Social Democrats hopeful of ‘stable’ coalition government

Social Democrat Olaf Scholz on Monday said he hopes to form a three-way coalition government by Christmas after outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s bloc registered its worst electoral performance in Sunday’s German national election.Scholz also assured the United States continuity in transatlantic relations as a matter of “essence” to Germany. “So you can rely on continuity in this question,” he said, adding it was important for democracies to work together.

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Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) ended with a narrow lead over Merkel’s center-right CDU-CSU bloc, and aims to head a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP).

SPD’s 25.7% vote share in the election was up five percent from its performance in the last polls held in 2017. Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc came in with 24.1%, while the Greens won 14.8% and the FDP 11.5%.

Scholz, 63, said voters had strengthened SDP, Germany’s oldest party, the Greens and the FDP. These three parties should lead the next government because of the “visible mandate the citizens of this country have given,” he said.

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Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing ‘grand coalition’, sought to dispel concerns regarding a multiparty government in Europe’s biggest economy.

“My idea is that we will be very fast in getting a result for this government, and it should be before Christmas if possible,” Scholz told reporters in Berlin. “Germany always has coalition governments and it was always stable,” he said.

Scholz said making the European Union (EU) “stronger and more sovereign ” would remain a priority.

“But doing so means also to work very hard on the good relationship between … the European Union and the United States,” he added.

Armin Laschet said the CDU-CSU bloc could still try to form a government. The Greens and FDP plan to hold mutual discussions before starting negotiations with either the SPD or CDU-CSU bloc for forming the government.