Germany's CDU, SPD to consider another grand coalition

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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier held Thursday evening talks with the heads of the country's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its Bavarian ally the Christian Social Union (CSU), as well as the chair of the Social Democrats (SPD) to break the country’s political deadlock.

Four weeks of coalition negotiations between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and two smaller parties failed two weeks ago, leaving the EU's biggest economy struggling to form a government.

The German Parliament building, known as the Bundestag in the capital city of Berlin /CGTN Photo‍

The objective of Thursday’s meeting in the German capital Berlin was to push the parties towards another "Grand Coalition."

The parties have already governed together during Merkel's two out of the three terms as German Chancellor, but after the worst ever defeat in the September national elections, the SPD ruled out another term in the government.

After a meeting with the German President last week, however, the center-left leader Martin Schultz hinted at a possibility to for a way out of the political impasse.

If no coalition government is formed, Germans could head to the polls once more in the spring. /CGTN Photo

The parties differ mainly on domestic issues like social welfare programs.

The SPD wants the conservatives to spend more in areas of pensions and education.

They also support a family reunification program for refugees, that has been heavily criticized by the center-right CSU.

Professor Doctor Klaus H. Goetz from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, however, said the meeting with the president is less about fundamental policy differences and more about political conditions.

"The two Christian parties, in principle are in favor (of participating in coalition talks with the SPD). The Social Democrats feel it might hurt them very badly if they try to enter another coalition."

Even if all the parties agree that there is enough common ground to enter into coalition talks, there is a lot to do at the party level that can further complicate things, said Professor Goetz.

"The whole negotiations take place in a situation, where we have problems within the Social Democrats about leadership and also, in a more pronounced way, fundamental disagreements about the future of the leadership of the CSU and that, of course, makes it very difficult to sit together at a table when two of the three partners have very little room for maneuver."

Newspapers in Bavaria reporting about the fragmentation within the state’s ruling Christian Social Union (the CSU), the sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (the CDU) /CGTN Photo

All parties are expected to hold high-level talks on Friday to discuss how to proceed, but any announcement regarding official coalition talks is unlikely until after the SPD congress next week.