As British politicians try to form a government to negotiate withdrawing from the EU, Germany's finance minister said the UK doesn't have to leave.

Get off the Brexit bus!

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Brexit may be able to be reversed if that is what the United Kingdom decided it wanted.

His comments come as the British government faces calls to stay in the single market, in the wake of a tumultuous general election that has left the country with a hung parliament where no single party commands a majority.

Mr. Schäuble told Bloomberg Tuesday in Berlin: “The British government has said we will stay with the Brexit. We take the decision as a matter of respect. But if they wanted to change their decision, of course, they would find open doors.”

In Britain both major parties, Conservative and Labour campaigned on the premise that the country would leave the European Union, sticking with the results of a referendum on the issue last year. But there has been debate on what this exit should involve: a total withdrawal from the single market and customs union, or simply a loosening but not a severance of ties.

Prime Minister Theresa May had called a snap election mainly to increase her majority in parliament to negotiate a so-called hard Brexit, or near total split with the EU.

But her gambled failed, and she is left with no majority, and no mandate.

In particular young voters, who overwhelmingly wanted Britain to stay in the EU, also supported Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and helped him win many more seats than experts had expected.

Leading politicians in both parties, including former Conservative leader William Hague, have now said Brexit talks should be more consensual and draw in views from all sides.

The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier meanwhile said in an interview with the Financial Times that the UK needed to start Brexit negotiations now that it has triggered Article 50 which begins the process.

“We haven’t negotiated, we haven’t progressed,” he said, adding: “I can’t negotiate with myself.”

Meera Selva is an editor with Handelsblatt Global. To contact the author: [email protected]