Singapore responds to German national election

The CDU, Germany’s centre-right party, remains largest force in parliament after yesterday’s national election, leading Chancellor Angela Merkel into her fourth term. The election results were overshadowed by the gains of AfD, a far-right party founded in 2013. The party gained momentum after Merkel’s decision to take in one million refugees in 2015/2016. It is the first time of postwar Germany that a far-right party will be in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament.

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam expressed his concerns and called the election of AfD a “worrying shift, and a challenge to the moderation and consensus-driven culture of Germany’s political landscape.”

Singapore is Germany’s most important economic partner in ASEAN. Both countries have strengthened their cooperation since 2015, for their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.