Merkel has a pragmatic attitude. Which means she will react to the needs. Now, the point will be how the narrative goes: “the CDU/CSU lost many votes and needs to gain conservatives back from the AfD and thus be very conservative, and make no concessions to the Greens”, or “the CDU/CSU may have lost many votes but has the confidence of the majority still, and the duty to form a government to ensure a stable government sorting the mess out and re-gaining confidence by success through governing”.
The latter seems to be more Merkel’s style, but make no mistake: as of today, the question is who will be her successor as head of the party, and the face for the next election.
Short: she would, but her party may want her to be very hard.
Interesting times, eh?
