Merkel warns of ‘big obstacles’
BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany’s top parties still had “big obstacles” to surmount before reaching a new coalition deal, ahead of a last-ditch round of negotiations on Thursday.
The veteran leader, who is battling to form a new government to salvage her political future, warned it would be a “tough day” of talks, which were expected to stretch well into the night.
She said her conservative Christian Democrats would “work constructively to find the necessary compromises but we are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country”.
September’s inconclusive elections left Merkel without a majority and struggling to find partners to govern Europe’s biggest economy.
After her earlier attempt at forging a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed, she is now pinning her hopes on renewing an alliance with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
SPD leader Martin Schulz also spoke of “big obstacles” on the last day of preliminary talks in which the parties were sounding each other out over whether to move on to formal coalition negotiations.
He said his party wanted to ensure that the new government committed “above all to working toward renewal of the European Union”.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier reminded all sides that they “have a responsibility towards Europe and for reliability, partnership and engagement in international politics”.
Merkel badly needs the talks to succeed, as do Schulz and the leader of her Bavarian allies, Horst Seehofer, said political analyst Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University.
“The negotiations are not just about a coalition, but also their careers. It would be the end for all three if this coalition does not come about,” he told public broadcaster ZDF.
Late on Thursday the parties are due to declare whether they will push on with efforts to forge a new government by around March or April.
Along the way, negotiators need to compromise on policy differences — the SPD is seeking welfare gains while the conservatives are pushing for tax cuts as Germany’s public coffers bulge.
As the clock ticks into a fourth month of political paralysis in Germany, Berlin’s biggest EU partner France waded in, with its Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Wednesday echoing the SPD’s demand for greater investment from Berlin.