Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden on Tuesday said he hopes German elections on February 23 will provide a “stable government.”

Speaking at a party meeting of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), Frieden said the next German administration should learn “lessons” from recent instability under Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition.

A coherent, stable policy in Germany is in the interests of neighbouring countries and Europe as a whole, the centre-right prime minister said.

“And that is why we very much hope that the election results will lead to a stable government in Germany,” he added.

Frieden said he does not want to interfere in the German election, nor in the current coalition debate in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party of Austria is set for negotiations to form a governing coalition with the conservative Austrian People’s Party.

However, Frieden said he considers “coalitions with far-right parties in Europe to be dangerous, because this can lead to a weakening of democracy in the medium and long term.”

The 51-year-old warned that in order to strengthen democracy, countries need strong parties from the political centre, and not the extremes.

“I am firmly convinced, as the head of government of a stable majority in a democracy, that democracy will not be strengthened if extreme parties gain success,” said Frieden.

“On the contrary. It may look democratic at first, but as history has taught us, it usually ends with less democracy, fewer rights and less freedom,” he added.



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