Merkel hangs on to power but bleeds support to surging far right

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office on Sunday but Europe's most powerful leader will have to govern with a far less stable coalition in a fractured parliament after her conservatives hemorrhaged support to a surging far right.

Two years after Merkel left German borders open to more than 1 million migrants, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by becoming the first far-right party to enter parliament in more than half a century.

The AfD won 13.0 percent of the vote - more than expected and one of many shocks on a night of drama that saw Merkel's conservatives get their worst result since 1949, and her main Social Democrat (SPD) rivals their worst since 1933.

Describing the far right's success as a test for Germans, Merkel insisted she had a mandate to govern - a formidable challenge as she has little choice but to cobble together a three-way coalition with a pro-business group and the Greens.

"Of course we had hoped for a slightly better result," a humbled Merkel said after her conservative bloc slumped to 32.9 percent of the vote - down from 41.5 percent at the last election in 2013.

But she added: "We are the strongest party, we have the mandate to build the next government - and there cannot be a coalition government built against us."

The euro slipped around 0.4 percent in early Asian trading as it became clear the results would make forming a coalition tricky for Merkel.

Coalition building could take months as Merkel's only straightforward path to a majority in parliament would be a three-way tie-up with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens - an arrangement untested at national level.

The Social Democrats, who have served with Merkel's conservatives as junior partners in a "grand coalition" for the past four years, won just 20.6 percent of the vote, as nearly half of voters repudiated the two parties that have dominated Germany since World War Two.

SPD leader Martin Schulz said the party would refuse to rejoin a coalition and instead take up its position as the main opposition. The Social Democrats appear to have been hurt badly by being in government, making it difficult to distinguish themselves from Merkel's conservatives.

After shock election results last year, from Britain's vote to leave the EU to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, leaders of Europe's establishment have looked to Merkel to rally the liberal Western order.

A pastor's daughter who grew up in Communist East Germany, she has acted as an anchor of stability in Europe and beyond. Now, she faces an unstable situation at home as she must form a coalition, an arduous process that could take months.

"TECTONIC SHIFT"

Sunday's election, fought against the tense backdrop of surging support for far left and far right parties across Europe, delivered a fractured German parliament with six party groups, up from four previously.

Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Germany weekly Die Zeit, said the vote marked a "tectonic shift in German politics" and that the three-way coalition Merkel looks likely to try to forge will be "highly unstable".

Leading AfD candidate Alexander Gauland vowed his party would "hunt" the new government, whatever its make-up, adding: "We'll get our country and our people back."

In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen congratulated the AfD, tweeting: "Bravo to our AfD allies for this historic showing!"

A large group of protesters gathered outside the AfD's post-election party and police said they made several arrests.

The European Jewish Congress expressed alarm at the AfD's success, adding: "We trust that centrist parties in the Bundestag will ensure that the AfD has no representation in the coming governing coalition."

The AfD says immigration threatens German culture, but denies that it is racist: "We will neither tolerate xenophobia nor racist positions. But we simply don't have them either," AfD co-leader Joerg Meuthen said.

The result makes kingmakers of both the FDP and the Greens, both of which have played the role in the recent past but neither of which now has enough support on its own to give Merkel a majority.

FDP leader Christian Lindner, an ambitious 38-year-old who preaches an ultra-hard line on Europe and has unsettled the German political establishment, said he was open to coalition talks with Merkel but that Germany needed a change of course.

The Greens' Katrin Goering-Eckardt said: "We will see if there can be cooperation."

A three-way tie-up of Merkel's conservatives, the FDP and the Greens - known as a "Jamaica" coalition because the black, yellow and green colours of the three parties match the Jamaican flag - is widely seen as inherently unstable.

The Greens - keen on regulation - and the business-friendly FDP are at opposite ends of the political spectrum and a clash of policy visions would be likely on tax, energy, the European Union and migrants.

Despite losing support, Merkel, Europe's longest serving leader, will join the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany's rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Copley, Michael Nienaber and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Keith Weir and Peter Graff)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Germany votes as history beckons for Merkel, and far-right

Polls show Merkel heading for historic fourth term

BERLIN - Germans vote in a national election on Sunday that is likely to see Chancellor Angela Merkel win a historic fourth term and a far-right party enter parliament for the first time in more than half a century.

Merkel's conservative bloc is on track to remain the largest group in parliament, opinion polls showed before the vote, but a fracturing of the political landscape may well make it harder for her to form a ruling coalition than previously.

With as many as a third of Germans undecided in the run-up to the election, Merkel and her main rival, centre-left challenger Martin Schulz of the Social Democrats (SPD), urged them on Saturday to get out and vote.

"We want to boost your motivation so that we can still reach many, many people," the chancellor, 63, said in Berlin before heading north to her constituency for a final round of campaigning.

In regional votes last year, Merkel's conservatives suffered setbacks to the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which profited from resentment at her 2015 decision to leave German borders open to over one million migrants.

Those setbacks made Merkel, a pastor's daughter who grew up in Communist East Germany, wonder if she should even run for re-election.

But with the migrant issue under control this year, she has bounced back and thrown herself into a punishing campaign schedule, presenting herself as an anchor of stability in an uncertain world.

Visibly happier, Merkel campaigned with renewed conviction: a resolve to re-tool the economy for the digital age, to head off future migrant crises, and to defend a Western order shaken by Donald Trump's U.S. election victory last November.

"GRAVEDIGGERS OF DEMOCRACY"

Both Merkel and Schulz worry that a low turnout could work in favour of smaller parties, especially the AfD, which is expected to enter the national parliament for the first time. On Friday, Schulz described the AfD as "gravediggers of democracy."

An INSA poll published by Bild newspaper on Saturday showed sliding support for Merkel's conservatives, who dropped two percentage points to 34 percent, and the SPD, down one point to 21 percent - both now joined in an unwieldy "grand coalition".

The anti-immigrant AfD, rose two points to 13 percent - a result the poll showed would make it the third largest party.

Should she win a fourth term, Merkel will join the late Helmut Kohl, her mentor who reunified Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany's rebirth after World War Two, as the only post-war chancellors to win four national elections.

The AfD's expected entry into the national parliament will herald the beginning of a new era in German politics that will see more robust debate and a departure from the steady, consensus-based approach that has marked the post-war period.

Coalition building after the election will be an arduous process that could take months as all potential partners are unsure whether they really want to share power with Merkel. All major parties refuse to work with the AfD.

Electoral arithmetic might push Merkel to renew her grand coalition with the SPD, or she might opt for a three-way alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens.

(Editing by Stephen Powell)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Soccer mad Germans declare sympathy for France before Euro clash

BERLIN - Germans appear to be tempering characteristic ambition to win the day in a Euro 2016 clash against France with higher sympathies for a core European partner hit by economic travails and militant attacks.

Thursday's soccer match decides who will qualify for next weekend's final at the Paris Stade de France, one of the targets of Nov. 13 attacks that shook Europe.

In an editorial on Tuesday entitled "Allez, allez", the Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote how France needed to beat Germany.

"Of course there is more at stake than football. France is feeling its economic weakness and it must look on enviously as the whole of Europe becomes more German," it wrote.

"A victory over Germany would be far more than a game won. It would be an act of liberation... A strengthened France helps Europe and the Germans."

The match, in Marseille, is all the more poignant because of the Nov. 13 attacks when the two teams played out their friendly match at the Stade de France despite audible bomb blasts nearby.

Bombers and gunmen murdered 130 people in Paris and shaken German players who spent the night holed up at the Stade de France have since spoken of feeling close to the France team.

Top-selling Bild daily combined headlines about how Germany would win the match with a comment from Franz Josef Wagner saying he had two hearts in his chest. One beat for Germany while the other embraced croissants and Brigitte Bardot.

"One heart says France has suffered enough, so many dead from terrorism, the economy is in decline, 10 percent unemployment. France needs some solace," he said.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel said the two teams symbolized the core EU values of solidarity and peace in the face of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Germany's World Cup winners honored

BERLIN - Germans basked in World Cup glory again on Monday when the national team were honored before attending the premiere of the official movie about their victory in Brazil in July.

President Joachim Gauck, joined by Chancellor Angela Merkel, awarded the players with the Silver Laurel Leaf, the country's highest sports award for what was Germany's fourth World Cup crown.

"All of us in Germany felt as if we were world champions," Gauck told the players before they received their awards.

"We can be happy that no one is envying our title and the world is happy with us."

Germany lifted the trophy after beating Argentina 1-0 in extra-time in the final following their historic 7-1 demolition of hosts Brazil in the semis.

"Many of us are not here for the first time," World Cup-winning captain Philipp Lahm said in his address at Bellevue Palace.

"But it is something special to have brought the trophy with us this time."

The 21 players, with Andre Schuerrle and Julian Draxler missing, and coaches were then whisked off to another red-carpet occasion as the city celebrated 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall which eventually led to Germany's reunification.

They attended the premiere of the "The Team", the movie detailing their run to the world title with inside glimpses into how the team lived the experience.

One of them was Thomas Mueller's trip and fall during a free kick in the knockout-stage win over Algeria. It was a routine practised over and over again by the Germans which just did not work right on the day.

But more than showing private moments of the players at their seaside camp in northern Brazil, the film highlighted the team spirit that was forged during the six weeks of preparations and competition.

Revenues from the movie will be used for charitable projects, the German Football Association (DFB) said.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Crowds welcome victorious German team home

BERLIN - About a million jubilant Germans welcomed their triumphant national soccer team home to Berlin on Tuesday, many waving flags and banners saying "We are all World Champions!" as they basked in the nation's fourth World Cup victory.

Hundreds of thousands of revellers packed Berlin's "fan mile", a 1.3 km stretch of road running from the west of the capital up to the Brandenburg Gate, for a huge party. Many more lined the streets in the city centre along the team's route.

The players danced and sang their way onto a stage at the Gate, a potent symbol of the Cold War, dressed in black T-shirts with the number 1 emblazoned on them and threw footballs into the crowd.

"Without you we wouldn't be here. We are all world champions," low-key coach Joachim Loew, affectionately known as Jogi, told the fans, many of them holding red posters with the words "Thanks Boys".

Young and old fans alike were decked out in Germany shirts, many with their faces painted black, red and gold and with wigs and bandanas in the national colours. Many had started drinking beer hours before the team's arrival from Brazil.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it's something to remember," said Sabine Kopf, 42, who travelled by train from the western city of Cologne with her husband and 11-year-old son who wore a shirt with "Jogi's Joker" on the back.

A black open-roofed bus drove the players, who jumped, screamed, waved and held up the golden World Cup trophy, through the streets of Berlin at a snail's pace for about 2-1/2 hours.

"I am really excited to welcome the World Cup winners during my lifetime. I am from East Germany and this is important," said Guenther Richter, 51, from East Berlin.

Sunday's 1-0 victory over Argentina in Rio de Janeiro marked the first time a reunified Germany has been world champion, with West Germany having won the trophy in 1954, 1974 and 1990.

One group of players drew attention for poking fun at their defeated opponents by stooping low and chanting "This is how Gauchos walk, Gauchos they walk like this", before jumping up to shout: "This is how Germans walk, Germans they walk like this!"

PRIDE

The success of the national team since 2006, when Germany hosted the World Cup, is widely seen as having helped Germans take greater pride in their nationality. History had previously made them uncomfortable about displaying such feelings.

Television channels blanketed the airwaves with coverage of the party and newspapers dedicated whole editions to the win.

"This is what four feels like!" splashed top-selling Bild on its front cover, with a picture of the team with hands raised.

"Welcome, World Champions!" Berliner Zeitung wrote on its front page.

Soccer enthusiast Chancellor Angela Merkel watched the match in Rio and had pictures taken in the dressing room with the exhausted but jubilant players afterwards.

Some experts think the popular chancellor may expect a boost in her ratings due to the World Cup feel-good factor. She did not receive the team on Tuesday as she was in Croatia, leaving Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit to welcome the players, who signed the city's roll of honour.

A roar went up from the crowd in the "fan mile" when the team's plane circled overhead. "Football's coming home!" bellowed fans when it touched down at the airport.

Captain Philipp Lahm led the team down the plane's stairs holding above his head the golden trophy secured in Sunday's final, with midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger close behind him wrapped in a German flag.

"We all saw each other here in 2006. But now we've got the damned thing," Schweinsteiger, who got a battering during the final match and ended up with a bloody cut under his eye, told the fans in the city centre.

Germany snatched the win in extra time with a stunning goal from fresh-faced Mario Goetze, a 22-year-old boy wonder who got a hero's welcome when he danced onto the Berlin stage.

"This is an unbelievable feeling. It's a dream," he beamed.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ban on circumcision causes Germans to howl

Germany's foreign minister added his voice on Thursday to a chorus of criticism of a court decision to ban the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons, arguing that such traditions must be permitted in a tolerant society.

"Germany is an open-minded, tolerant country where religious freedom is firmly established and religious traditions like circumcision are considered an expression of religious pluralism," Guido Westerwelle told the daily Bild in an interview to be published in its Friday edition.

A court in Cologne ruled on Tuesday that involuntary religious circumcision should be illegal as it could inflict serious bodily harm on people who had not consented to it.

The ruling, which applies only to the area around the western city of Cologne but sparked fears among Muslims and Jews in particular that other German states could copy the ban, said boys can consciously decide to be circumcised later in life.

According to the court ruling, "the fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighs the fundamental rights of the parents".

Westerwelle said the ruling caused "irritation" around the world after being reported in the international media.

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet's website said Turkish European Minister Egemen Bagis had criticized the German ruling, saying that circumcision was a matter of freedom of religion and conscience.

"If German judges have a problem understanding this issue, we can send our scientific circumcisers, we can give them lessons in how to circumcise," he was quoted as saying.

"We are ready to make any contribution for a country that is a friend and ally. But it is not possible for us to accept this ruling as a fait accompli ... God willing, this verdict will be changed," Bagis said.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany called the ruling an "unprecedented and dramatic intrusion" on religious freedom and the Central Council of Muslims in Germany called it "blatant and inadmissible interference" in the rights of parents.

Germany's two main Christian churches also criticized the Cologne court ruling, the Catholic Episcopal Conference calling it "extremely disconcerting".

"To ban circumcision is a serious attack on religious freedom," said Catholic Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff.

The Evangelical Church's Hans Ulrich Anke said: "Religious freedom and parents' right to choose how to educate their children have not been weighed against the fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity".

The United Nations' special rapporteur on religious freedom, Heiner Bielefeldt, told German radio the court's reasoning was "nonsense".

source: interaksyon.com