German election: Angela Merkel looks to make deal with rivals after historic third victory

 
23 September 2013

Angela Merkel was today trying to build a new coalition to govern Germany after winning a historic third term and cementing her position as Europe’s most dominant leader.

She told supporters chanting “Angie, Angie” in Berlin: “This is a super result.” The Christian Democratic Union leader is expected to first turn to her arch-rivals the Social Democrats. But Chancellor Merkel admitted that her centre-Right party may struggle to do a deal with them and that there were obstacles to a coalition with other parties such as the Greens.

“Maybe we won’t find anyone who wants to do anything with us,” she said after her election triumph which came despite the economic crisis which has rocked the eurozone.

With nearly all the votes counted, Mrs Merkel’s conservative bloc stood at around 41.5 percent, its strongest score since 1990, and tantalisingly close to the first absolute majority in the Bundestag’s lower house of parliament in half a century.

The Social Democrats came second with just under 26 per cent, slightly above their worst post-war result of 2009. But this time around they will be loath to do a deal with Ms Merkel unless she pays a high price.

During the campaign, the centre-Left Social Democrats argued for a minimum wage and higher taxes on the wealthy which were opposed by Ms Merkel. A coalition with the Social Democrats could limit attempts by David Cameron to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the EU as part of wider European reforms. There was bitter disappointment for Mrs Merkel’s allies in the outgoing government, the Free Democrats, who suffered a humiliating exit from the Bundestag, the first time they will be absent from the chamber in the post-war era. The result leaves Mrs Merkel as one of the few European leaders to survive the debt crisis, which has seen 19 of her EU peers lose their jobs since 2010.

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