Summary of the day
That’s a wrap, here is a recap of the latest developments:
Friedrich Merz, whose CDU/CSU bloc won Sunday’s federal election, has called on Europe to unite as he warned the continent was facing its “five to midnight” moment. Merz pointed to the signals emerging from the US which suggest that its interest in Europe is waning.
Merz has said his aim is to form a new government – most likely a coalition with the Social Democratic party – by Easter, which falls in late April this year.
He described the doubling of support for the far-right in the German elections as the “last warning” to the country’s mainstream parties, urging them to reach joint solutions.
Merz has listed foreign and security policy, migration, and the economy as his first three priorities.
Outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz said the election result was a “bitter” moment for him and his SPD party, adding that his government had “tried to do a good job in face of one of the greatest challenges facing our country since 1945,” in a reference to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The election saw the SPD, Germany’s oldest political party, receive the worst ever result in its history.
Scholz has said he would stay on as a chancellor until his successor is confirmed.
Far-right leaders and other anti-immigration firebrands have rejoiced in the gains made by the anti-immigrant pro-Kremlin AfD, which is set to become Germany’s main opposition party. Co-leader Alice Weidel hinted to reporters on Monday that she had been sleeping when Elon Musk rang her to offer his congratulations.
Friedrich Merz marked his conservative alliance’s victory in Germany’s election by urging Europe to make itself more independent from the US – a project that will be music to the ears of Emmanuel Macron but may turn on whether Merz can build a Bundestag majority to lift the so-called debt brake that slows increases in defence spending.
One possibility for the CDU/CSU alliance leader, who is on course to become Germany’s next chancellor, is to claim that the country is in an emergency, to try to force the change through the Bundestag before its dissolution.
Sunday night’s remarks by Merz, a lifelong Atlanticist, show how rapidly European leaders are concluding that Donald Trump’s presidency requires the continent to become more responsible for its own security.
