Conservatives put pressure on Social Democrats to form government: "Europe is waiting for Germany"

BerlinThe conservatives of the CDU-CSU put pressure on the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to speed up negotiations to form a future coalition government. For the moment, the talks are at a preliminary stage following the federal elections on February 23. The formation of a government, however, is urgent not only for internal reasons, but also in view of international challenges, especially after the recent spat between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, which has created uncertainty about future US support in Ukraine for the Russian war of aggression.

"Europe is waiting for Germany," warned the general secretary of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Carsten Linnemann, to his future coalition partners. "That is why we must enter into talks as soon as possible," added Linnemann, who reiterated that the goal remains to have a coalition government by Easter.

The Conservative Friedrich Merz, future German chancellor, said on Monday that he was "quite surprised" by the tone of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. Merz believes that what happened in the Oval Office "was not a spontaneous reaction to Zelensky's interventions, but a provoked escalation." "I also advocate that we do everything possible to keep the Americans in Europe," said Merz, who believes that "the Americans have, and should have, an interest in maintaining a transatlantic partnership with Europe."

The conservatives are considering the possibility of calling an extraordinary session of the Bundestag, which is still in session, to make a decision on increasing military spending and financing future aid in Ukraine, with the parliamentary majority of the current parliament.

In the future Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament that must be formed by March 25 at the latest, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and The Left will have a blocking minority.

The concerns of the Germans

52% of Germans support the formation of a grand coalition between conservatives and social democrats to govern, according to a survey by the INSA institute published by the Picture on Sunday. 44% of respondents believe that a grand coalition would govern Germany better than the traffic light coalition of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, made up of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals. 38% think Merz will be a better chancellor than Scholz, 27% think he will be a similar one and 28% think he will be a worse chancellor.

Germans think that the priorities of the new government should be the rejection of unauthorized refugees at the German border (62%), the reform of the debt brake (42%) and the creation of a special fund for the country's defense (30%), according to the same poll in the Sunday edition of the daily. Image.

Social Democrats win in Hamburg

The CDU-CSU won the general election on February 23 with 28.5% of the votes in Germany and were ahead of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) (20.8%). The SPD came in third with 16.4%, the Greens got 11.6% and L'Esquerra, 8.7%. Although the CDU-CSU won its election, it will not be able to govern alone and needs a coalition partner. The conservatives have ruled out any government with the far right, the second most voted party. Until now the Social Democrat Scholz governed, but the so-called traffic light coalition broke up in November due to internal disagreements, which led to the call for early elections.

The leaders of the SPD and the CDU met separately on Monday in Berlin to analyze the results of the regional elections in the city-state of Hamburg this Sunday. With 33.5% of the vote, the SPD retains Hamburg, one of its largest strongholds, but will have to find a coalition partner. The CDU won 19.8% of the votes in Hamburg, the Greens 18.5%, the Left 11.2% and AfD 7.5%.

Hamburg's mayor, Social Democrat Peter Tschentscher, wants to renew the coalition with the Greens, although he does not rule out an alliance with the conservatives, who came second in these elections. The CDU opts to govern in coalition with the Social Democrats in Hamburg as a junior partner.