"Five to midnight": Merz, winner of German elections, addresses Europe

At a wide-ranging press conference after his conservative CDU/CSU alliance won federal elections on Sunday, Friedrich Merz made clear his focus was on the turbulent geopolitical landscape, saying that while he would seek good relations with the US, he was also prepared for a “worst-case scenario.”

Asked about the doubling of support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which came in second with 20% of the vote, he called on Germany's political mainstream to recognise this as a "final warning".

Effective leadership is urgently needed to counter the further growth of the AfD and to address the problems that have contributed to its rise in popularity, he said: “This is really the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany to come to common solutions.”

But as the 69-year-old former banker prepared to take on the difficult task of forming a government with Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), his first comments on Monday - the third anniversary of the Ukraine conflict - were aimed at Kyiv.

He wrote on the X website: "Europe stands unwaveringly on Ukraine's side. Now more than ever, this is true: we must put Ukraine in a position of strength."

In an apparent criticism of the Donald Trump administration after it last week launched talks with Russia to end the conflict that excluded Ukraine and Europe, he added that Kyiv must participate in peace talks "to achieve a just peace."

Merz, a prominent transatlanticist and advocate of close US-European relations, later said that “all the signals we are getting from the United States indicate that interest in Europe is declining.”

“If those who really believe that their motto is not just ‘America first’ but almost ‘America only’ win, then it will be difficult,” he told reporters. “But I still hope that we can preserve the transatlantic relationship.”

For years, Berlin has resisted calls from Paris to build up Europe's defence capabilities, feeling secure under the protection of the nuclear-armed US, The Guardian recalls.

Merz, however, made clear that he believed Europe's largest economy had entered a new era. "Particularly after Washington's statements in recent weeks, it has become clear that we Europeans now need to be able to act very quickly," the German politician said.

Merz also called out the Trump administration’s interference in the German election campaign unacceptable. Elon Musk, a close ally of the American president, congratulated the AfD candidate for chancellor after the far-right party performed well in the election. On Monday, Musk wrote on X: “It’s only a matter of time before AfD wins.”

The AfD won roughly twice as many votes as it did in the last election three years ago. But the party will not be part of the coalition government talks because of the “barriers” that have historically existed between the mainstream parties and the far right.

A jubilant Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD and a candidate for chancellor, called her party's results "historic" and denounced Merz's refusal to enter into a coalition with the AfD as a "blockade of democracy", saying millions of voters were effectively disenfranchised by the decision.

The Alternative for Germany did particularly well in the former East Germany, where it won 43 of the 48 available seats after campaigning heavily on an anti-immigration platform and supporting the “re-emigration” of immigrants and German citizens seen as poorly integrated.

On Monday, Merz, whose CDU/CSU alliance won 28.5 percent of the vote, said: “We need to make sure that we solve the problems in Germany together so that we can step by step deprive this party of its breeding ground.” If that fails, he said, referring to the next election, “we will have completely different problems.”

Merz said his CDU colleagues had warned him that the former east was "only a few years ahead of you in the west" and that "if you don't solve the problems, you will have the same problem."

With migration a major campaign issue, Merz doubled down on his view that “we need to regain control over who comes into our country.” The CDU leader sparked controversy in January when he pushed a non-binding migration policy through parliament with the support of the AfD.

His hard-line immigration policy is diametrically opposed to that of the Social Democrats, and the parties, which together would have a narrow majority in the Bundestag, are likely to enter into heated negotiations to try to form a grand coalition.

Many Germans fear a rerun of the last "grand coalition" (GroKo, as it is known) led by Angela Merkel between 2018 and 2021, which critics accused of lacking ambition and failing to address pressing issues such as economic and bureaucratic reforms, increased defense spending and infrastructure upgrades.

Sunday's election was tough for all parties in the current government. The SPD, Germany's oldest political party, suffered its worst result ever, winning just 16 percent of the vote. Scholz, who will remain chancellor until Merz forms a government, called the result "bitter."

The Greens won 11.6% of the vote, three points less than in 2021. The market-liberal FDP failed to cross the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament, as did Sahra Wagenknecht's left-conservative alliance (BSW). The Linke Left Party won 8.8%.

Merz hopes to form a coalition by Easter at the end of April, stressing the urgency of the talks and saying: "The world is not waiting for us."

Merz also said at his press conference that he would ensure that the Israeli prime minister could visit Germany without being detained after the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes committed in Gaza.

Merz called it an “absurd idea” that Benjamin Netanyahu should not visit Germany and said he told Netanyahu so by phone.