Despite getting its worst-ever result in a federal contest, the Union bloc said it too would reach out to smaller parties to discuss forming a government, while Merkel stays on in a caretaker role until a successor is sworn in.
The Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl (1982-1998) was mocked by the German left as a provincial wannabe but the wily powerbroker became a towering figure of European, even world, politics, presiding over German reunification, deepening and enlarging of the European Union, and the introduction of the Euro.
Mrs Merkel's conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), suffered heavy losses in the south-western states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Macron's comments came after the US president decided to pull troops out of north-eastern Syria last month without consulting his allies which initiated an offensive by the Turkish forces on Kurds.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was widely expected to win a fourth term in office as Germans went to the polls today…
