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