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Eighty-three percent of German voters cast a ballot in yesterday's election - the most since reunification - and they voted for a change in government. The country will have a new chancellor, lawyer and businessman Friedrich Merz. His conservative party will likely govern with only one other coalition partner. That's a formula that could make Germany's government more decisive and efficient. NPR Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz reports.
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FRIEDRICH MERZ: (Speaking German).
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: At a late-night victory party in Berlin. Germany's next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told supporters to celebrate now because starting the next day, they'll need to get to work. Merz says he wants to form a coalition government by mid-April, which, for Germany, is lightning fast.
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MERZ: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: "The world out there," said Merz, "won't wait for Germany. It does not have time for lengthy coalition negotiations. We need to start governing so that we can do the right thing, both at home and in Europe."
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MERZ: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: For the past four years, the three-party coalition government of Olaf Scholz moved slowly, often squabbling among itself over how to support Ukraine without angering Russia or how to stimulate the economy without taking on debt. That argument ended up collapsing Scholz's government and led to yesterday's early election. And this election exposed a trend that mainstream politicians are trying to smother - the rise in popularity of the nationalist far-right Alternative for Germany party, known by its German acronym, the AfD. The party is under state surveillance for the threat it poses to Germany's democracy, and its members routinely trivialize the Holocaust. One out of every five Germans voted for the AfD.
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ALICE WEIDEL: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: At the party's headquarters in Berlin, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel said her party's hand was outstretched, ready to govern with Merz's party, to honor what she called the will of the people. Later in the evening, though, on a German television program where all of the party's chancellor candidates were in the same room, Merz announced he would not govern with the AfD, and Weidel's tone suddenly changed.
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WEIDEL: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: "Merz," said Weidel, "won't be able to form a stable coalition without us. He will face the consequences," she said, "when he crashes and fails."
SCHMITZ: And then Merz shot back.
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MERZ: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: "The so-called Alternative for Germany is not interested in real solutions," said Merz. "The party thrives on problems, and it has no interest in solving them. On the contrary," he continued, "the AfD is happy to see problems get worse." Merz also criticized what he called Elon Musk's meddling in the German election by supporting the AfD.
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MERZ: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: "My No. 1 priority," said Merz, "is to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so we can become independent from the United States. I never thought I'd say this," said Merz, "but after Donald Trump's statements last week, it's clear that Americans don't care about the fate of Europe."
Becoming independent from the United States will not be easy. It's going to require a costly overhaul of Germany's beleaguered military, and that will require Merz's government to relax Germany's debt brake, a rule enshrined in Germany's constitution that prevents the government from running a budget deficit.
The other problem is the AfD. Merz's party will have to form what's called a grand coalition with the other centrist party in parliament, the Social Democrats. And the AfD will be waiting in the wings for them to make mistakes, says U.S. German Marshall Fund's Sudha David-Wilp.
SUDHA DAVID-WILP: So the grand coalition will probably move toward the right to address voter concerns such as migration and also a slowing German economy.
SCHMITZ: And to address that, she says, Merz will need more money than his budget may allow to bring the country's lackluster infrastructure, defense and industry back up to speed. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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