Germany’s Scholz says it’s not business as usual after bad EU election result

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BERLIN (Reuters) – The European election result was bad for all of Germany’s government coalition parties and they cannot go back to business as usual to win voters back, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday.

“No-one is well advised to simply go back to business as usual,” said Scholz said in a news conference in Berlin, adding that the gains far-right parties made are worrying and should not become normalised.

“We have to worry about that. You can never get used to it, and it always has to be the task to push them back again,” he said.

All three parties in Germany’s ruling coalition suffered losses in EU parliamentary elections on Sunday while the far-right Alternative for Germany made solid gains, according to provisional results on Monday.

Among the coalition partners, the Greens slumped the most, falling to 11.9% from 20.5% in 2019, dealing them a blow ahead of national elections next year. Scholz’s Social Democrats fell to 13.9% from 15.8% and the pro-business Free Democrats dropped to 5.2% from 5.4%.

The conservatives came in first place, as expected, on 30% compared to 28.9% in 2019, while the AfD took second place on 15.9%, up from 11%.

Scholz said he was in favour of making a decision on the EU’s leadership quickly, adding that the European Commission president must rely on a democratic majority of traditional democratic parties in the European Parliament.

“There is no reason to take too long with this,” he said.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen began trying to piece together a coalition on Monday as her centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) gained seats.

But to secure a second five-year term, von der Leyen needs the support of a majority of the EU’s national leaders and a working majority in the European Parliament.

Germany’s coalition parties have rejected the possibility of von der Leyen reaching out to Italy’s nationalist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom she has worked closely.