Zürcher Nachrichten - Germany's embattled Scholz trades blows with rivals as election looms

"I will certainly not regret having proposed compromises every day and until the end, until the last common day of this government coalition," a defiant Scholz told the Bundestag a week after his coalition imploded.

Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, whose party has a clear lead in the polls, poured scorn on Scholz and labelled his address the "witching hour" of a failed government.

Social Democrat Scholz's motley alliance with the Greens and Free Democrats collapsed a week ago, on the day Trump secured re-election to the White House, and at a time when Europe's largest economy faces serious headwinds.

The chancellor said he had a "good conversation" with Trump by phone on Sunday and stressed that German-US ties "have been the foundation of our country's success for decades".

"We should do everything we can in the coming decades, regardless of who is in power here or there, to ensure that this relationship continues to develop well," he said.

Trump's election victory has cast doubt internationally on the level of future US support for Ukraine, now in its third winter of war as it fights back against Russia.

Scholz -- whose government has been the second largest supplier of military aid to Kyiv after Washington under President Joe Biden -- pledged that German support will not stop.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that (Ukraine) won't be left alone," he said, adding that Kyiv "can rely on our country and our solidarity".

He said it was equally important that "we do everything we can to ensure that this war does not escalate any further and that we do not become a party to the war".

- 'Lightweight' -

Speaking after the chancellor, Merz charged that Trump would best remember the chancellor for the chaotic days of anti-globalisation riots that erupted during a G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017 when Scholz was the city's major.

"Donald Trump knows your name from the G20 summit in Hamburg, which you organised so brilliantly," Merz said sarcastically.

He told Scholz that he would have "no authority" to speak to the next American president who would regard the chancellor as "a lightweight".

Merz -- who has rained withering fire on the fractious coalition for months -- said that what Germany needs "as soon as possible" is "a stable and effective government".

Vowing a "fundamentally different" style of politics, Merz also pledged that a conservative-led government would "regain control over immigration" by turning illegal migrants back at the borders.

The top challenge now was "to restore the international competitiveness of our economy," said Merz, a former corporate lawyer.

The world's third-largest economy has been battling woes from a manufacturing slowdown to weak demand for its crucial exports, and is on course to shrink for the second straight year.

An influential economic panel issued a scathing report Wednesday that judged that "by international standards, Germany is lagging far behind economically," held back by "structural problems".

The head of Germany's central bank, Joachim Nagel, told Die Zeit weekly that Trump's plan to hike tariffs on all imports could knock one percent off German economic output.

Feuding over economic and fiscal policy were key drivers that led to the breakup of Scholz's coalition last Wednesday, when the liberal Free Democrats left.

Scholz told parliament that spending on security or support for Ukraine are crucial but must not lead to cuts in pensions, welfare or the health sector at home.

Stressing the need for social cohesion, he said that "I do not want one issue to be played off against the other".

Merz fired back and told Scholz: "You are dividing the country, Mr Chancellor. You are the one responsible for these controversies and for this division in Germany."

A.P.Huber--NZN