SPD under pressure to join talks

Berlin, November 23 

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) should reconsider their opposition to joining a new “grand coalition” with Angela Merkel’s conservatives because Europe needs a stable government in Berlin, a senior ally of the chancellor said on Thursday.

Germany is facing the worst political crisis of its modern history after Merkel’s efforts to forge a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens collapsed last weekend, raising fears across Europe of a prolonged leadership vacuum in the continent’s economic powerhouse.

The SPD has governed in coalition under Merkel since 2013 but said it wanted to go into opposition after suffering its worst result of the postwar period in the September 24 election.

Some in the SPD, however, are now urging party leader Martin Schulz to reconsider, a view echoed on Thursday by Volker Kauder, leader of Merkel’s conservative parliamentary group in the Bundestag lower house of parliament. “It’s my wish that the current partners in the coalition government can get together again,” Kauder told the regional Suedwest Presse newspaper referring to the SPD and the conservatives.

Schulz is due to meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former SPD lawmaker and foreign minister. Steinmeier is trying to help facilitate a coalition government and avoid fresh elections.

Schulz is then expected to consult senior party members at the SPD’s Berlin headquarters. Changing course and teaming up with Merkel’s conservatives again could require a change of leadership at the SPD.

Kauder said Germany needed a government to provide leadership in Europe. “Europe is waiting for a Germany capable of acting so that it can finally respond to the questions raised by French President (Emmanuel) Macron. The economically strongest country in Europe cannot show itself as a political dwarf,” he said.

Germany, world’s fourth largest economy, has long been a bastion of stability in the EU, and officials in Brussels and Paris fear months of political uncertainty could harm plans to reform euro zone governance and EU defence and asylum policies. — Reuters

Merkel looks secure for now despite chaos 

• Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives are rallying around her despite the failure of talks to form a three-way ruling coalition, buying her time in office and putting the onus on her Social Democrat rivals to break political impasse
• Merkel secure for now at the helm of her Christian Democrats, the pressure shifts to the SPD to help form a coalition after the failure of the chancellor’s three-way talks 
• President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is keenly aware the source of Germany’s international clout is its economic power and that businesses want a stable coalition and avoid another poll