Merkel secures a new coalition

Vote by rival Social Democrats helps her remain in power as Germany’s chancellor.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel proved to be a lucky duck instead of a lame duck on Sunday when the country’s second-largest political party, the Social Democrats, agreed reluctantly and after nearly six months of bitter wrangling to join forces with her conservative Christian Democrats for another four years.

Grass-roots members of the center-left Social Democrats opted by a surprisingly large two-thirds majority in a postal vote to swallow their pride and join another loveless right-left “grand coalition” with the Christian Democrats. The vote will keep Merkel in power even though Social Democratic leaders had vowed that they would do no such thing after an inconclusive election in September.

In that vote, both parties slumped to their worst postWorld War II results after ruling four years together as a new far-right party, Alternative for Germany, siphoned away considerable support from both. Feeding off frustration over the arrival of more than a million refugees from Syria and elsewhere, it become the thirdlargest bloc in the six-party Parliament.

Weaker at home than any other time during her 12 years at the helm of Europe’s leading nation, the 63-yearold Merkel could have been forced out of power and Germany plunged into a political crisis with new elections likely if the 463,000 grassroots members had voted against the coalition agreement. It was a detailed 179page pact that the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats had hammered out a month ago in which Merkel turned over considerable power and important ministries to the Social Democrats to attract them into her government.

Germany has been politically adrift during the last five months without a new government. Many in the European Union had been holding their collective breath for the last four weeks as Social Democratic leaders begged party members to support another “grand coalition” despite initial misgivings.

The nation’s two largest parties have been archrivals for most of the last 70 years. Many analysts and even Social Democratic leaders had expected an extremely close contest and were surprised that a 66% majority of the party’s ballots were in favor of the coalition. Results were announced at a news conference televised live early Sunday.

“Just about everyone was expecting it to be very close,” said Julius van der Laar, an international political strategist based in Berlin. “A lot in the [Social Democratic Party] thought it was just the wrong decision to be part of another Merkel government but others thought it was just time to get a working government. The big winner today is Merkel.”

Merkel and her new government are expected to be sworn into office by March 14.