Germany’s SPD to decide on talks for new Merkel govt
BERLIN: Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats meet from Thursday to decide whether to help Chancellor Angela Merkel end a months-long political stalemate in Europe’s biggest economy.
Party chief Martin Schulz will ask the deeply divided SPD to give him the green light for exploratory talks on joining Merkel in another coalition government starting in early 2018.
Another option for Germany’s second-biggest party would be to allow Merkel to run a minority government — though she has so far rejected this as inherently unstable.
For Schulz, a willingness to sound out a power pact with Merkel represents a U-turn after he repeatedly vowed to go into opposition following his party’s dismal showing in the Sept. 24 elections.
Schulz, a former European Parliament president, relented after Merkel’s talks with two smaller parties collapsed two weeks ago, sparking political uncertainty and raising the unpopular spectre of new elections.
At the three-day SPD congress in Berlin, he will face fierce opposition, especially from the party’s youth wing, which bitterly rejects the humiliating option of the SPD again playing second fiddle in a so-called grand coalition.
There will be “disputes and fights,” acknowledged Schulz, who is due to stand for re-election as party chief.
But his political future is also at play, with senior SPD member Carsten Schneider warning that if Schulz fails to convince the party to adopt his strategy, then he would “also no longer need to stand for the leadership of the party.”
Michael Broening of the SPDlinked Friedrich Ebert Foundation said the Social Democrats “once again find themselves in a Catch-22 situation.”
“The party fears new elections, loathes another grand coalition, but still does not want to be seen as obstructionist naysayers shying away from civic responsibility,” Broening said.
“That is why their preferred option would be to tolerate a minority government. However, this enthusiasm is neither shared by chancellor Merkel nor the wider German public.”