Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Forging an alliance
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting of her Christian Democratic Union party’s fraying coalition Monday in Berlin.
BERLIN — The sudden collapse of talks to form a coalition government left German politics in turmoil Monday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel reckoned with one of the worst crises of her 12-year tenure and signaled that a new election is likely.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and anchor of stability, is facing the prospect of months of political uncertainty after Merkel’s conservatives were unable to form a coalition with two smaller parties.
Merkel said Monday that she was “very skeptical” about trying to forge ahead with a minority government — a setup that has never been tried in post-World War II Germany — after talks with the left-leaning Greens and pro-business Free Democrats broke down hours earlier. Her current coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrat party, has remained adamant that it will go into opposition after a disastrous result in September’s election.
Immediately after the talks broke down just before midnight Sunday, Merkel pledged she would do everything possible to ensure Germany would continue to be well led. Later, she said that while the situation was regrettable, “we nevertheless have stability in our country.”
Her comments came after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to political leaders to rethink their positions and try again to form a new government.
“We now face a situation that we haven’t had in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, so in nearly 70 years,” Steinmeier told reporters after meeting Merkel. It is Steinmeier who will have to decide whether to pave the way for a minority government or call a new election.
“This is the moment at which all parties should pause and reconsider their position,” he said. “I expect from everyone readiness to talk, in order to make the formation of a government possible in the foreseeable future.”
“The responsibility given to the parties remains,” said Steinmeier. “One can’t just return that responsibility to the voters.”
Merkel spent four weeks haggling with the Free Democrats and the Greens on a new, untried governing coalition until the Free Democrats walked out Sunday night.
Martin Schulz, the leader of her current coalition partner, the Social Democrats, reiterated Monday that his party was “not available” for a repeat, even without Merkel in charge, and that a minority government “is not practicable in Germany.”
The party “will not shy away from new elections,” Schulz said. “In fact, we welcome them.”
Steinmeier said he will meet leaders of all the parties involved in the failed talks, as well as others, in the coming days.
If neither the Free Democrats nor the Social Democrats budge, that leaves as the only options another election or a minority government. The German Constitution doesn’t allow parliament to dissolve itself, so the decision lies with Steinmeier.
“I don’t have a minority government in my plans,” Merkel said in an interview Monday with ARD public television. “I don’t want to say never today, but I am very skeptical and I think that new elections would then be the better way.”
While Merkel insisted in an interview with broadcaster ZDF that she would not step down, she also suggested that calling a new election would be preferable to leading a government that must survive vote-to-vote without a majority in the German parliament, the Bundestag.
“Germany needs a stable government,” she said.
To get to either destination, the president would first have to propose a chancellor to parliament, who must win a majority of all lawmakers to be elected. Assuming that fails, parliament has 14 days to elect a candidate of its own choosing by an absolute majority. And if that fails, Steinmeier would then propose a candidate who could be elected by a plurality of lawmakers.
Steinmeier would then have to decide whether to appoint a minority government or dissolve parliament, triggering an election within 60 days.
Merkel made clear that her pre-election pledge to serve another full term stands and indicated that she was ready to run again.
“I was always asked in the election campaign, ‘Will you be ready to serve Germany as chancellor for four years?’” Merkel said. “Two months have passed [since the election], so it would be very strange … to say that what I told voters during the whole election campaign doesn’t stand anymore.”
The nationalist Alternative for Germany, which emerged from September’s election as the third-biggest party, welcomed the coalition debacle.
“Merkel has failed,” party co-leader Alexander Gauland said. “We think it’s time for her to go.”
The Free Democrats’ leader, Christian Lindner, defended ending the talks, telling reporters “we would have had to abandon our fundamental positions” to join a government with the conservatives and Greens. He pointed in particular to compromises his party would have had to have made on key issues like migration policies, financial issues and education.
Social Democrats leader Schulz said the negotiating parties had put Germany “in a difficult situation.” To which the senior Free Democrat, Wolfgang Kubicki, replied: “If there are new elections, it’s because of the Social Democrats, not because of us.”