German Chancellor Angela Merkel's newly elected CDU parliamentary group have met for the first time. Merkel's conservative bloc is facing the complicated task of forming a coalition government, in the face of robust opposition from both the right and left. The most politically plausible option is a three-way coalition with the pro-business FDP group and the traditionally left-leaning Greens. It will be up to Merkel to bridge differences between the two.

 

Meanwhile, the FPD is refusing to sit next to the far-right A-F-D party. It instead wants to sit in the middle of parliament, as a metaphor for its centrist credentials.