German President Says Country Divided by 'Walls' of Misunderstanding

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said that following the German parliamentary election it became clear that the country is divided by the new "walls" of misunderstanding.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Delivering a speech on the anniversary of German reunification, Steinmeier said the election showed "less visible walls without barbed wire and death strips," hinder "our common 'we'."

The president explained that he was talking about the walls between "city and country, online and offline, poor and rich, old and young, walls, behind which one hardly knows anything about the other."

Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) won the election with 33 percent of votes in the worst result since 1949. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) of which Steinmeier is a member, came second with 20.5 percent of votes.

At the same time, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party gained 12.6 percent of votes and has become the first far-right party to get into the German parliament in over half a century.

German federal election results

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