Hard work ahead for Germany
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Germany's Angela Merkel set to work Monday on a new centre-right coalition after securing a second term, but warned Germans of hard work ahead to solve the crisis-stricken economy and other problems.
Mrs Merkel clinched a new four-year mandate on Sunday with an election score allowing her to dump an awkward ‘grand coalition’ with the Social Democrats (SPD) for an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
"I think we've really earned the right to celebrate tonight," Mrs Merkel, Germany's first female leader and the only chancellor from the former communist east, told jubilant supporters late Sunday.
"But I want to say to everyone in this country that I want to be the chancellor of all Germans, so that things improve for our country. "We have a lot of work ahead of us," she warned.
Voters rewarded the 55-year-old leader for shepherding Europe's biggest economy through its worst downturn since World War II. The new coalition should be formed within a month.
But although the popular Mrs Merkel savoured her victory, the daily Tagesspiegel said the 33.8-percent result by Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their CSU allies from the southern Bavaria region - their worst since 1949 - marked a ‘black eye’ for the chancellor.
It took the FDP's record 14.6-percent score to tip the new coalition over the top. The champions of free trade and lower taxes will return to power for the first time since conservative Helmut Kohl led Germany 11 years ago. FDP leader Guido Westerwelle aims to become the country's first openly gay foreign minister.
David Goodman talks to Network Europe's Berlin correspondent Brett Neely:
