Confidence deal in the offing for new Merkel coalition

Talks between the top German parties on forming a new government for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fourth term spilled into overtime Monday but confidence appeared to be growing they would strike a deal.

More than four months after Germany’s general election, marathon weekend negotiations failed to yield the desired breakthrough on all outstanding differences. However, both sides sounded upbeat about the chance for an agreement by a self-imposed Tuesday deadline.

“We’ve reached the point where we can get a good outcome,” conservative Armin Laschet, premier of Germany’s most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, told public broadcaster ARD.

“I am very confident that we’ll reach a deal” on Monday, Justice Minister Heiko Maas of the Social Democrats (SPD) told the same program.

As the parties returned to the negotiating table Monday morning, a deputy leader of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), Volker Bouffier, admitted the talks could drag on until early Tuesday to iron out the final kinks.

Europe’s top economic power has been locked in political limbo since an inconclusive general election in September.

Although Merkel and the CDU came out on top, they failed to secure a ruling majority, leading to the longest coalition negotiations in postwar history.

The Social Democrats, Germany’s second largest party, have served under Merkel in a right-left “grand coalition” for two of her three terms since 2005.

But governing in her shadow has cost them vital support and they scored a historic low 20.5 percent in the September poll.