German election result is "pro-Europe": Sipilä

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä believed "not much will be changed" in Finnish-German relations in the wake of the German election results.

Sipilä underlined continuity of the bilateral relations in a statement late Sunday and noted that Finland and Germany have had fairly similar views on the development of the eurozone.

Sipilä told national broadcaster Yle that he doesn't believe Germany will continue being against increasing joint responsibilities in the eurozone. He noted that the German election result is "pro-Europe" in the sense that the liberal FDP and the Greens were successful.

Teija Tiilikainen, director of the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, said it is in the interest of Finland that Merkel will continue as German chancellor. Finland has maintained close contacts with her in recent years.

Pilvi-Sisko Vierros-Villeneuve, a leading expert at the Finnish Foreign Ministry, said she believes Germany will be able to be flexible towards the ideas for strengthened economic and monetary union. She recalled that Germany showed flexibility also during the euro crisis. "But there is a limit how far Germany can go," she said.

Tapio Nurminen, a Germany-based analyst for the Finnish commercial television, noted on Monday that the German government will be for the next four years "in the grip of the populists" in the opposition. This will mean that Merkel must pay a lot of attention to domestic issues and must listen particularly to the disappointed voters in Eastern Germany.

"The extreme right became now a tangible political force in Germany and must be listened to. That is bad news for the EU and eurozone that are in need of reforms," Nurminen said.

Nurminen said that the strengthened joint responsibilities in the European Union (EU) can be forgotten as well as the upgrading of EU institutions. Nurminen said that even the development of EU foreign and defence policies could suffer.

The German conservative union led by Angela Merkel on Sunday defended its commanding role in the Bundestag (German parliament) with 32.5 percent of the vote, offer a decent chance for Merkel to claim her fourth term as Chancellor.

Meanwhile, the far-right party Alternative fuer Deutschland unexpectedly made a historical breakthrough with 13.5 percent of votes, and became the third strongest party in the Bundestag.