BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — Germany’s conservative chancellor Angela Merkel may have won her fourth consecutive national election on Sunday (September 24), but she faces a huge challenge in trying to forge a three-way alliance between parties far apart on the political spectrum.
Speaking to her supporters, Merkel said the coming weeks would not be easy.
Despite winning most votes, Merkel’s bloc slumped to its worst result since 1949 and, just as significant in terms of government building, her current Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners said they would go into opposition after slumping to 20.7 percent in projections, a post-war low.
Merkel herself indicated that she had only one other option to govern. ‘Jamaica’ is the name given to a tie-up between her conservative bloc, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens, from the fact that the island’s flag is made up of the black, yellow and green colors of the three parties.
Projections put the conservatives, comprising Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) on 33.0 percent, the FDP on 10.6 and the Greens on 8.9 – enough for a workable majority.