Berlin — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’ll team up with France to hold the European Union together and pledged to form her next government “without delay.”

In a New Year’s Eve speech to the nation, Merkel outlined a vision for her fourth term that includes an alliance with French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen Europe’s economic clout and control migration, while upholding values of tolerance and pluralism within the EU and abroad.

“Twenty-seven countries in Europe must be impelled more strongly than ever to remain a community,” Merkel said in a copy of the speech provided by her office in advance of the televised address. “That will be the decisive question of the next few years. Germany and France want to work together to make it succeed.”

Merkel’s effort to combine the strengths of the eurozone’s two biggest economies has been hamstrung by Germany’s longest post-election party deadlock since World War II, which has left her a caretaker chancellor since September. Exploratory talks on renewing her coalition with the Social Democratic Party begin Jan. 7.

The chancellor sought to put her stamp on the political debate after a poll this week suggested Germans increasingly don’t want her to serve another full term. Merkel, 63, said she’s committed to forming “a stable government for Germany without delay in the new year.”

That’s likely to be more difficult than in the past, especially after Merkel’s attempt to create a coalition with the Free Democratic Party and the Greens collapsed. After serving as Merkel’s junior partner for eight of her 12 years in office, the Social Democrats slumped to a postwar low in the German election in September.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, Merkel’s former finance minister who is now president of the German lower house, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that while a stable alliance with the SPD is preferable, governing without a parliamentary majority would be an option if talks with the SPD fail.