<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Spanish Government has congratulated this Monday the German Christian Democrat leader, Friedrich Merz, for his victory in the legislative elections this Sunday and has celebrated that the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) will not be part of the next German Executive.</strong></h4> “Congratulations to Friedrich Merz for last night's electoral victory in Germany,” declared the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, through social networks. “A strong Europe requires that we work together to face common challenges,” continued the head of the Executive, who called for “more competitiveness, strategic autonomy and ecological and digital transition.” For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, declared to National Radio of Spain that he celebrated that the far right of AfD will not enter the new German Government. “It seems that the grand coalition will once again be the chosen formula,” he said. “Whatever the formula, it will contribute to stability because it will exclude, and this is a decision already taken by the parties that can form a government, those who are against the European project and, therefore, contrary to the interests of Europeans,” he continued. “The forces that can form a government are clearly pro-European and exclude any pact with the extreme right,” he added. For his part, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, celebrated that “there is change in Germany” and that his “friend Friedrich Merz has clearly imposed himself and that the winner is legitimised to govern.” “Today is a great step for an EU that needs to fine-tune its course with governments capable of providing economic and security certainties,” he added through social networks. Feijóo's unmistakable allusions to Spanish domestic politics are added to those made by Pedro Sánchez himself this Sunday during a PSOE rally in Andalusia, in which he stated that "the far right will not enter into any governability equation" in the new German government. "That is the great difference between Germany and Spain: there is a moderate right there and here there is a right under the tutelage of the far right," he added. Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and candidate for chancellor of the conservative bloc that has won the legislative elections in Germany, reiterated after his victory his categorical rejection of any type of cooperation with the far right.
