Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel upon the success of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union in the parliamentary elections.
"In a telephone conversation Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel upon the success of the CDU/CSU bloc in the September 24 parliamentary elections," the Kremlin’s press-service said.
The readiness was confirmed during the conversation to "continue business-like and mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Germany."
According to official early returns Merkel’s CDU/CSU placed first in the parliamentary elections to have collected 33% of the votes. The Social-Democratic Party was second with 20.5% of the votes. The right-of-center Alternative for Germany was supported by 12.6% of those who cast their ballots, Germany’s Free Democratic Party, by 10.7, the Left, by 9.2% and the Greens, by 8.9%.
Merkel has retained her control of the Cabinet for a fourth term running, but she has no majority in parliament, which requires creating a coalition government.
The President of the Minchenko Consulting Communication Group, Yevgeny Minchenko, who observed this election in Berlin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that we should expect that the new German government will be even more anti-Russian than the previous ones. "There will be a so-called 'Jamaica' coalition, where the CDU/CSU will unite with the Greens and the Free Democrats. The Greens have the most harsh attitude towards Russia, therefore, I think the situation will be worse than the one that was at the time of the CDU/CSU coalition with the Social Democrats," he pointed out.
Yevgeny Minchenko also stressed that, according to the election results, despite the actual victory, the position of the CDU/CSU block in German society has greatly weakened. "I would not assess their result as a victory, because the ruling coalition lost more than 5 million votes. So the result of these elections was a very tough assessment of the ruling coalition's policy by German voters".
Associate Professor of European law at the MGIMO university, Nikolai Topornin, also expects that Russian-German relations will shift to the worse after the elections. "The SPD, the most pro-Russian of all the parties to the parliament, has gone into the so-called constructive opposition, and it's a loss for Russia. But it is good that neither the ultra-right AfD nor the lefts will enter the coalition. A coalition of the CDU/CSU, the Free Democrats and the Greens is expected, where, according to the assumption of German analysts, in accordance with the traditions, the CDU/CSU will give the post of Foreign Minister to one of the small parties. But Russia has no great friends neither among the Greens, not among the Free Democrats," he drew attention.
"As for the Greens, they differ in their tougher rhetoric towards Russia. They did not talk much about how they will build relations with Russia, they are more concerned with the migration crisis and relations with Turkey, and their relation with Erdogan are quite tough and tense. As for Russia, the rhetoric of the Greens is just as tough, they proceed from the view that Russia is responsible for the situation in Donbass and allegedly governs the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. If the Greens representative becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs, we should not expect any improvement in our contacts," Nikolay Topornin warned.
According to his estimates, Angela Merkel's influence on the anti-Russian policy in Germany will also increase. "In the expected coalition with one major bloc in association with two small parties, I think Merkel's authority will only increase. The fact is that neither the Greens nor the FDP have such an authoritative politician who would be respected and known as a responsible person in foreign affairs. Merkel has repeatedly said that she is ready to cooperate with Russia if the Minsk agreements are being implemented," the Associate Professor of European law at the MGIMO university concluded.
