Legal Business

Letter from… Frankfurt: Where political deadlock is fine for business… but not all lawyers

What a difference a few hundred miles can make: an election not resulting in a clear majority; a government polling much worse than expected; a leader weakened; and complicated negotiations ahead. In London, such headlines spell uncertainty, prudence, even panic.

While any poll in the UK fills its legal community with trepidation, the Germans reacted to the results of the federal election on 24 September by either stressing that no-one should overestimate the impact of politics on business or by saying it was good news. Says Georg Seyfarth, veteran corporate partner of German blueblood Hengeler Mueller: ‘Building the coalition will be difficult and it will take time. However, eventually we will see a “Jamaica coalition”, which will be good for businesses. The M&A market will not be affected.’