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Potential candidates for German chancellor unlikely to worsen ties with Russia, says MP

The German business community has already issued a declaration urging the future government to avoid conflicts with Russia, Leonid Slutsky also noted

MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. Apart from the Greens party leader Annalena Baerbock, prospective candidates for the post of German chancellor are unlikely to erode ties with Russia or lock horns with big businesses over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky said on his Telegram.

"Judging by their pre-election statements, none of the likely candidates for the post of [German] chancellor, with the exception of Baerbock, are unlikely to worsen relations with Russia. Though they both criticize Moscow on various issues, they nonetheless see the need for dialogue between it and Germany, and with the EU as a whole. They both support Nord Stream 2," Slutsky noted.

Slutsky recalled that Baerbock "has repeatedly opposed the gas pipeline’s construction, vowing that if she enters the government, she will thwart gas deliveries." "But too much money has been invested in Nord Stream-2. And whoever becomes German chancellor won’t be able to neglect the interest of big business. The German business community has already issued a declaration urging the future government to avoid conflicts with Russia," he added.

According to Slutsky, "opponents of the beleaguered project are unlikely to stop. However, they can certainly whip up some trouble," the lawmaker noted.

According to Germany's election authority, the Social Democratic Party received 206 out of the 735 seats in the Bundestag, while the bloc of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) got 196. That said, the Greens gained 118 seats, while the Free Democratic Party picked up 92, Alternative for Germany scooped up 83 and The Left clinched 39 seats.