Union’s Chancellor Candidate Friedrich Merz is confident that, despite the controversial vote on the so-called “Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” last Friday, coalition talks with the SPD and the Greens will still be possible.
Speaking to the TV station “Welt” on Monday on the sidelines of the CDU party convention, he said: “We, after the dust of the debate had settled, had the Gewalthilfegesetz passed in the German Bundestag together with the SPD and the Greens on the same evening. That is to say, on the same day that this unyielding attitude was also directed against me personally, the Social Democrats and the Greens still passed a law with us. So, go ahead and assume that: There is a lot of election campaign involved, a lot of nervousness involved. The SPD and the Greens, after all, are standing with their backs against the wall. The SPD will not get out of this hole. I don’t see it getting any better in the next few days. And then we will talk to each other and that is completely clear.”
When asked about the voting behavior of the FDP faction, which had not voted with the Union as announced by its faction leaders, Merz criticized: “You can’t lead a faction successfully by doing that. Personally, I have great doubts whether the FDP will return to the German Bundestag. That will be shown by the polls in the next few days, but what we saw at the FDP was no shining example of leadership.