Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has phoned the winner of the presidential election in Ukraine. She invited the future President Volodymyr Selensky according to government information to Germany. The 41-year-old had clearly prevailed in the runoff on Sunday against the incumbent Petro Poroshenko.
According to a government spokeswoman Merkel Selensky congratulated on the phone to his electoral success and said that the result gave him a strong mandate. The newcomer to politics had won over 73 percent of the vote.
In the telephone conversation with Merkel, he showed himself, according to the Federal Government, interested in resuming talks in Normandy format. This refers to peace negotiations for eastern Ukraine, in which not only Ukraine and Russia but also Germany and France participate. Selensky had already named the subject in his victory speech on election night as a priority.
The telephone conversation has been the second contact between the Chancellor and the future President since Sunday. The morning after the runoff election, Merkel Selensky had already congratulated in writing. In her letter, she promised that the Federal Government would assist Ukraine "in particular in its right to sovereignty and territorial integrity".
Previously, Merkel had been in the criticism, because she had received in contrast to her French counterpart Emmanuel Macron shortly before the runoff election only incumbent Poroshenko and not his challenger in Berlin.