Trade and industry unhappy with German election result

Jürgen Thumann, president of the national industry alliance Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, said: "From the industry's and the economy's perspective, we are disappointed. The decisions taken in this election do not imply a decision on the way forward. We expect a grand coalition's policy to be likewise. Germany will be harder to govern."

Martin Wansleben, COO with the German Industry and Trade Association  (DIHK), said "a coalition of rationality" is what is needed now. 

European business association UNICE did not want to react immediately to the outcome of the elections but a spokesperson told EurActiv that, whatever the future coalition, Germany will have to implement strong economic reforms.

Anton Börner, President of the German Association of Wholesale and External Trade  (BGA), said it was pity that the elections had not resulted in a clear policy orientation. There were important reforms, like the ones in the health and tax sectors, where it was entirely unclear what was going to happen. 

Hubertus Pellengahr, spokesman with the retail association Hauptverband des Deutschen Einzelhandels, said: "It will be important for the economy and for consumption that there is clarity soon on how things will go on. An adjourned game would be the worst thing that could happen to the economy." HDE member the Tengelmann group had, on the election weekend, ran an advertising campaign in favour of Merkel. Hans-Joachim Körber, CEO of retail and wholesale giant Metro  said any new government must tackle the "great tasks" that Germany was facing, which meant in particular to enhance the economic framework and to combat unemployment. A clear majority in the Bundestag would have been needed, Körber said.

Klaus-Peter Müller, the President of the German Banking Association, said the election result was a great challenge, since unclear majorities were going to make it difficult to form a stable government. Jörg Krämer, chief economist with HypoVereinsbank said "This is no untying the Gordian knot". Ulrich Hombrecher, CE with WestLB, added the new government would be forced to work in a state of "permanent conciliation". 

Robert Halver, economist with Vontobel Asset Management, said the result was "poison for the stock exchanges" due to the lack of a clear coalition option. Klaus Schrüfer, economist with  Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken  (SEB), said he was expecting a slow fall of the Dax, the German shares index, but no long-term losses. "Enterprises will be more profitable, but they will be rated lower." 

Otto Kentzler, the President of the Handcraft Association, said any new government must now concentrate on combating unemployment and other imminent problems, with a clear reform agenda.

Nikolaus Schweickart, CEO of the Altana chemicals and pharmaceutical group  and vice president of the CDU's Economic Council, considers the election result a "disaster" for the German economy and said a grand coalition was equivalent to a political logjam. The chemical industry was hoping for a conservative-liberal coalition to soften the EU's planned REACH regulation. 

Klaus Zimmermann, President of the German Institute for Economic Research, said a grand coalition of the Conservative and Social-Democrat parties would have a sufficiently broad basis to tackle the necessary reforms. 

Michael Hüther, President of the Institute of the German Economy (IW), said: "A grand coalition does not mean the end of the world."

Roland Döhrn, economist with the Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research  (RWI), said he expects a political stalemate, with clear political decisions having moved to the distant future.