Germany’s Angela Merkel's --2018 New Year speech

Acknowledging that her government disappointed many Germans in 2018, Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to pull the country together for 2019 with a call for solidarity and cooperation to overcome deep political divisions.

In 2019 Germany will assume greater international responsibility and must stand up for its convictions, Angela Merkel vows.

In her New Year speech, Merkel said she recognized that many Germans “bemoaned” the ruling coalition that took office in March, an alliance of her conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), which has been blighted by infighting.

But she added: “We will only master the challenges of our times if we stick together and collaborate with others across borders.”

The chancellor said old certainties about international cooperation had "come under pressure", alluding to strained US-German relations.

This year, President Donald Trump and the chancellor have clashed on German domestic and foreign policy issues.

Germany is still feeling the impact of Merkel’s 2015 decision to leave open the country’s borders to more than 1 million refugees, mainly fleeing war in the Middle East.

Resentment at that decision helped feed the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which surged into the Bundestag for the first time at last year’s federal election, fracturing the country’s political landscape.

The chancellor, who will step down in 2021, pledged to increase the country's spending on humanitarian and development aid, and defense.

A poll on Sunday showed a majority of those surveyed Germans who expressed an opinion supported her staying on as chancellor for the full term.

Merkel stressed what she called Germany’s values of “openness, tolerance, respect” and said the country would work towards “global solutions” when it starts a two-year stint as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1.

Merkel has sought to defend the Western order on which Germany depends and which U.S. President Donald Trump has destabilized by pulling out of international agreements on climate change and Iran’s nuclear programme, and with tariffs.

She said she was committed to making the European Union more robust and capable of taking decisions.

“And with Britain, we want to maintain a close partnership despite the withdrawal from the European Union,” she added.