24 September 2013

German Election Result Has Warnings For National

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says this week’s German election result contains warnings for National in the lead-up to our General Election next year.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats emerged as easily the largest party after the German election, but without an overall majority, and its coalition partner, the Free Democrats, failed to cross the 5% threshold to win any seats, meaning Ms Merkel now faces difficult coalition negotiations with left-wing parties to form a new government.

“This should be a wake-up call for National as it faces our election next year.

“John Key could well end up in a similar position to Ms Merkel now – leading the largest party in Parliament by far, but without a majority, and facing the possibility of being marooned by a motley coalition on the left,” he says.

Mr Dunne says National needs to be nurturing its coalition partners now to avoid that possibility.

“I think the current government configuration has worked well on the whole, and has coherence about it that the left wing parties cannot yet match.

“But National cannot take anything for granted – it needs to be working actively with its partners now to ensure that not only are existing confidence and supply agreements fully and completely honoured and implemented, but also that they are not overlooked when it comes to policy development on other matters.

“National’s nightmare scenario is ending up after the next election without any partners – but instead of just worrying about that and hoping ‘something will turn up’ it needs to be working actively with its partners now to make sure that does not happen.

“The winning or losing of next year’s election might come down to the extent to which National is prepared to learn and heed the lessons of this week’s German election,” Mr Dunne says.

ENDS

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