Top European Union officials showed little concern about the collapse of Germany’s coalition government and the prospect of early elections in the bloc’s largest member state.
“In democracies we have elections,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday as she arrived at a meeting of European leaders in Budapest.
How to resolve the political crisis in Berlin was something “Germany had to discuss,” she added.
“Well, that’s democracy,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in Budapest, in a similar tone.
However, she called on Berlin to continue working with other major EU countries despite political unrest at home.
“We cannot have a strong Europe without a strong Germany,” she said.
“This is the political-democratic debate,” said European Council President Charles Michel. “We are not afraid of democratic institutions, on the contrary.”
