Merkel in final lap of coalition talks

World
Europe

Chancellor Angela Merkel will on Friday begin a final stretch of negotiations with Germany's second biggest party to form a government, four months after an inconclusive election left the country in political limbo.

Merkel will sit down with Horst Seehofer, leader of her arch-conservative Bavarian sister party and SPD leader Martin Schulz at 0800 GMT to open a week of intensive talks to thrash out a program for a repeat of the past four years of "grand coalition".

As Germany's European partners are beginning to weary over the long-running impasse along with many Germans, Schulz said the negotiations would proceed "full speed ahead... without getting carried away at all."

He said the SPD was broadly optimistic and determined to forge an alliance that the party leadership could present to the rank-and-file "in good conscience".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party meeting in Berlin, Jan. 21, 2018. /VCG Photo

The formal negotiations bring Germany a step closer to a new government and come after the SPD on Sunday narrowly approved a preliminary cooperation blueprint and agreed to push on with the talks.

But the outcome is still uncertain as the SPD will give its 440,000 members a vote on the end result.

After Merkel's bid to form a government with the smaller left-leaning Greens and pro-business FDP fell through, she was forced to woo back the SPD, its partner in the last four-year-term.

Social Democratic Party (SPD) chairman Martin Schulz makes a statement as he arrives for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and State Premier for the state of Bavaria and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Horst Seehofer ahead of coalition talks at the CDU headquarters in Berlin, Jan. 22, 2018. /VCG Photo

Pressure on immigration policy

Riven by division over whether it would not be better to rebuild in opposition, the SPD's leadership is under pressure from its radical youth wing to win concessions from the conservatives, on immigration in particular.

The conservatives are wary. They are under pressure from the AfD, which burst into parliament for the first time on Sept. 24, propelled by public concerns over Merkel's decision to open Germany's doors to more than a million refugees in 2015.

In a draft agreement the two camps hammered out this month, the parties agreed a soft ceiling of 220,000 immigrants a year, one the Bavarian CSU in particular refuses to compromise on.

Negotiators hope to wrap talks up before carnival season starts in earnest on Feb. 8, which would allow a government to be in place by Easter.

But time is short: the SPD membership has been promised a vote on a final coalition deal. With new members thronging to the party in the hope of casting a vote against a new coalition, chances of securing membership consent diminish by the day.

7368km

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters