Who should lead Germany?
After the TV debate between Chancellor Merkel and her Social Democratic challenger Schulz the SPD is hovering between 21 and 24 percent in the polls. As a result the only question the commentators are discussing is with whom Merkel's CDU should form a government with after the elections.
Merkel must get rid of SPD
If she wins the election Angela Merkel should look for a new coalition partner, The Economist advises:
“Success will partly depend on Mrs Merkel picking the right partners in government. A continuation of the present grand coalition with the SPD threatens yet more sleepy stasis. Instead she should team up with the free-market Free Democratic Party and the Greens - who are wise on Europe and tougher on Russia. Such a coalition would stand a chance of shaking the country up. As its leader, the hesitant Mrs Merkel might even become the chancellor who surprised everybody.”
CDU-FDP coalition would be nightmare for France
A coalition between the conservative CDU and the liberal FDP would be disastrous for Franco-German relations, Le Monde comments:
“Secretly the French dream of Angela Merkel using her last term of office to force her people to accept a Europe that's more integrated and that shows more solidarity to the weakest member states. ... Such a scenario seems unlikely but not totally unrealistic should the CDU team up with the Green Party. But if it joins forces with the FDP there's no way it could come about. At 38, [FDP leader] Christian Lindner has no intention of departing from politics but rather of making a success of his arrival by casting himself as the best defender of German interests. Sooner or later that can only lead to new tensions with Macron's France.”