Merkel 4th term closer as CDU votes in favour of coalition deal
berlin — German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her Christian Democrats (CDU) on Monday to approve a coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD), a step that would bring her closer to a fourth term.
The more formidable hurdle to ending a five-month political impasse in Europe’s largest economy comes next week, however. On March 4, results of a binding postal vote by members of the centreleft SPD will be announced and they are far less certain.
The CDU party congress follows Merkel’s announcement of her picks for a new, younger cabinet intended to revive the party, which has been riven by disagreements over how to respond to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) since losing votes to the far right party in national elections in September.
The CDU’s youth wing has called for the party to renew itself in the wake of its worst election result since 1949 in September and Merkel, 63, stressed in her speech to delegates at Monday’s CDU meeting that younger faces were in the new team.
She asked her party to vote in favour of the deal, which is expected to go through easily, as a poll showed support for both her conservative bloc - which also includes the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) — and the SPD rising. “We want to make our contribution to forming a stable federal government that is capable of acting,” Merkel said, adding that most people in Germany and beyond expected this.
She reassured delegates that the new German government would not take out any new debt, avoid tax increases, seek to renew the European Union, ensure fast internet is available everywhere in Germany by 2025, boost research spending, create 8,000 nursing jobs and take a “zero tolerance” policy on security.
Merkel said conservatives secured wins in coalition talks with the SPD, including preventing what she called the “aberration” of a single health system that the SPD had demanded to replace the current dual public-private system. —