German Business Groups Worried About Coalition Formation

The close results in Germany's elections on Sunday have the country's business community concerned that forming a government will be difficult, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Photo Insert: The Frankfurt financial district

"There should not be a political impasse lasting months," Kerstin Andreae, head of the federal energy and water association, said in Berlin as results came in.

"We need a coalition for preventing climate change as quickly as possible. Irrespective of what that coalition is in the end, any government must act quickly," she said, pointing to the emission targets already fixed under German law.

Achim Berg, president of the Bitkom digital association, said: "After the elections four years ago, we went through an unparalleled impasse, which must not be allowed to repeat itself. The tactical games at the time cost valuable time, while digitalization won't wait."

Hans Peter Wollseifer, head of the skilled workers' association, said the only thing that was clear was that there were many options for a coalition. "But that leads to the fear that it could be weeks before coalition talks lead to a result," he said, also pointing to the drawn-out talks in 2017 that lasted almost six months.

The head of the association of medium-sized businesses, Markus Jerger, said companies needed clarity for their decisions on investment. "Germany as a business location cannot tolerate another round of coalition negotiations going at a snail's pace in view of poor economic data," he said.

Andreas Mattner, president of the ZIA real estate association, said: "Germany needs clarity quickly. The stalemate places a burden on business as a whole and leads to delay instead of action." Decisions were needed so that more housing could be built in inner cities, he said.

The president of the association of family businesses, Reinhold von Eben-Worlee, said responsibility now lay with the smaller parties, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

He termed a possible leftist coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the hard-left Die Linke a "worst-case scenario for the future of Germany as a center of industrial production."

The president of the BGA foreign trade association, Anton Boerner, took a similar line, saying the electorate was strongly against a leftist government. He called for the parties to compromise in building a coalition.

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