Victory for Merkel

This week, we look at media comment on the results of the German general elections, which saw Angela Merkel return to power with a new coalition partner, the liberal FDP.

Not Margaret Thatcher

Germany's new coalition should embrace a reform agenda, writes the Financial Times.

... Ms Merkel is no Margaret Thatcher: the chancellor won by occupying the centre ground. After four years in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, her instincts are cautious. But she can afford to take on board some of the FDP ideas to be more business-friendly, simplify corporate taxation, and review welfare spending. Tough public spending restraint will be needed, but tax cuts will boost domestic demand in the longer term, which is good for Germany and for the global economy. ...

A personal triumph

Angela Merkel has been given a chance to continue her steady leadership, writes the International Herald Tribune.

Sunday’s [27 September] elections in Germany were a personal triumph for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose low-key centrist leadership has been good for Germany, good for Europe and good for trans-Atlantic relations. She is now the European Union’s steadiest, best-respected leader. If that says as much about the weakness of the rest of the field as it does about Mrs. Merkel’s positive qualities, she will have more political space to show off those qualities in her second term. ...

Multi-party politics

Both the CDU and the SPD have lost support, but the FDP's gains allow Merkel to remain in power, writes The Guardian.

... For the first time in modern Germany, all the parties in the new Bundestag have polled more than 10% but less than 40%. Multi-party politics has never been more deeply entrenched in Germany than it is now. Germans have nevertheless rewarded Mrs Merkel for steering a coalition with the SPD through turbulent economic times, without presiding over economic disaster or abandoning popular social programmes. Germans have not voted for radical change. They have given a vote of confidence to their tried and tested social market model, but in a very different way from before.