German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will not cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party after disputed regional elections in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The chancellor stressed that the elections, in which the Greens won by a small margin over Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union, will not affect the work of the coalition government in Berlin.
Merz again indicated that he categorically rejects the possibility of cooperation with the AfD, which came third in regional elections and consolidated its position as the largest opposition force in the country, even outside the eastern provinces, where it usually has strong positions. The chancellor said the result was largely due to the popularity of the Greens' leading candidate, Cem Özdemir, a moderate politician and former agriculture minister who is a more recognizable public figure than his 37-year-old rival from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Manuel Hagel.
Merz also said he had spoken with the leaders of his coalition partner, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), in Berlin and that the two parties had agreed to accelerate work on stabilizing the economy, which is emerging from a two-year recession. "This result will not affect the coalition here in Berlin. We will continue our work," he said at a press conference at the CDU headquarters.
He said Germany must catch up on the backlog accumulated over years and even decades. "We in the coalition, as well as our SPD partners, are fully aware of this", he added, promising more tangible progress in implementing the planned economic reforms.
At the start of the election campaign, the Greens lagged behind Merz's Christian Democratic Union in opinion polls, but as election day approached, they managed to close the gap, helped by Özdemir's high popularity. The final results of the vote, conducted under a mixed system of majoritarian and proportional voting, resulted in an equal number of seats for the two parties in the local parliament.