Brexit now inevitable, but we should keep ties close - Merkel ally

CDU party congress in Leipzig

BERLIN (Reuters) - Boris Johnson's victory in the British parliamentary elections meant that the country's departure from the European Union was now inevitable, senior German conservative lawmaker Norbert Roettgen tweeted on Friday.

"It's no secret that personally I wanted the UK to #remain in the #EU," wrote Roettgen, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

"But the British people have decided & we have to accept their choice: With Johnson's victory #Brexit has become inevitable. Our goal now has to be to keep relations with the UK as close as possible," he added.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)