Germany rules out early elections despite European poll setback

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced that there will be no early elections in Germany despite the ruling parties' poor results in the European elections. He said there was no discussion about it at any moment, "not even for a second." Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to take such a step.

- The planned election date is autumn of next year, and we intend to hold them then - Steffen Hebestreit said on Monday in Berlin, quoted by the Tagesschau portal.

The government spokesman noted that the results of the three co-governing parties in Germany—the Social Democratic SPD, the Greens, and the liberal FDP—in the European elections "are not favourable." He added that these parties will have to conduct a detailed analysis.

Media assessed that the coalition parties suffered a severe defeat in the European Parliament elections. Particularly severe losses were recorded by the Greens, who obtained only 12 percent of the votes, representing a significant drop compared to the record 21 percent in the previous European elections in 2019. The SPD of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz obtained 14 percent of the votes (in 2019 - 16 percent), and the FDP - 5 percent (in 2019 - 5 percent).

Markus Soeder, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), believes that the results of the European elections in Germany primarily showed that the government no longer has any support among citizens. In an interview with broadcasters RTL and NTV, he demanded "new elections and a new start for the country as soon as possible." He cited France as an example, where President Emmanuel Macron called for early parliamentary elections on Sunday.

Alice Weidel, co-chair of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), who finished second in the European elections in Germany behind the CDU/CSU Christian Democratic bloc, shares a similar view. On Monday, she called for elections. "Now Scholz has only one task: to pave the way for new elections - instead of governing against the clear majority of society for another year," she wrote on platform X.

Meanwhile, in France, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that he is dissolving the National Assembly and calling for early parliamentary elections. The first round will occur on 30th June, and the second on 7th July. He announced this decision after the exit poll results of Sunday's European Parliament elections were released, showing that the far-right National Rally (RN), associated with Marine Le Pen, won significantly.