Quotes
What no democracy — American, German, or European — will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered,
Vance said
Friedrich Merz must brace himself now,
warned Jan van Aken, one the leaders of The Left
We doubled our results in three years and took a major milestone yesterday!"
AfD leader Alice Weidel wrote Monday on social mediaTo justify spending towards their voters, I think for most politicians in Europe it would be helpful if the money goes to a European company,
Rozemuller added
A decent portion of additional defense spend across Europe is already priced in,
Equity research analyst Christoph Laskawi saidThis will play nicely into the European Defense Industrial Strategy,
Houwer explainedThe comments already out of the CDU since they've claimed the election are very nationalistic, and the idea that they need to protect themselves and rely less on the U.S. feeds into the need to spend more on defense,
Morningstar's Field told CNBC on MondayEurope's challenged security architecture makes it highly likely for the CDU/CSU and SPD to agree on higher defense spending in principle,
they saidThe election result is poor and I bear responsibility,
said Scholz, who will hang on in office until his successor can be named
I have personally decided that I will leave the party if the SPD makes Friedrich Merz chancellor,
Social Democrat supporter Philipp Bauer, 44, told AFP outside the party HQ on SundayThe ball is in Friedrich Merz's court,
said SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil at a party press conferenceI can't support that,
said Bauer, who works as a lawyer in BerlinGiven the enormous challenges, it is good for Germany as a business location that the CDU and SPD have, albeit by a slim margin, a majority,
IW's Knut Bergmann told DW
In a grand coalition, I ultimately see a continuation of the stagnation that Germany experienced during [former chancellor] Angela Merkel's 16 years in office,
he told DW, noting how the CDU/CSU/SPD failed to create huge economic dynamism during the 12 years they ruled together during Merkel's reignWe need a stable coalition and the ability to act quickly, as deindustrialization in Germany is in full swing,
she told DWI would have expected a greater willingness to reform from a black-green coalition,
said Kritikos, referring to the CDU's black party colorsDue to demographic change, there are only two options: If we want better infrastructure, we must either work longer or finance it through debt,
he saidThe biggest challenge of all is going to be forming a stable coalition that also has the strength to cut the AfD down to size,
said political scientist Aiko Wagner of Berlin’s Free University
This is really the last warning to the political parties of the democratic centre in Germany to come to joint solutions,
Merz told a press conferenceWe must work together to see that we solve the problems in Germany” in order to “gradually deprive this party of its breeding ground
he told journalists