Merkel’s last-ditch battle for coalition

GERMANY: Angela Merkel was fighting for her political future yesterday as she entered last-ditch negotiations to agree to open coalition talks to form a new German government.

The German chancellor said there were still ‘‘big obstacles’’ to surmount ahead of a final day of talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) over whether there was sufficient common ground to open formal negotiations.

Merkel has been fighting to create a new governing coalition following last September’s election, which saw her Christian Democrat (CDU) party lose ground to the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Her first attempt to build a so-called ‘‘Jamaica’’ coalition with the Greens and Liberals failed last December, forcing Merkel to seek a renewal of the ‘‘Grand’’ left-right coalition with the SPD that saw both parties suffer losses at last September’s polls.

If both sides fail to agree to open formal coalition talks, Merkel, who is seeking a record-equalling fourth term, will be left with the unpalatable choice of trying to run a minority government or calling fresh elections.

With the SPD rank-and-file nervous of re-entering a coalition after the party sank to 20 per cent in opinion polls, Merkel acknowledged that the talks would be ‘‘tough’’.

She said the CDU would ‘‘work constructively to find the necessary compromises’’, but added: ‘‘We are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country’’.

There was additional drama after Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the governor of Saarland and a key member of Merkel’s negotiating team, was slightly injured when her car crashed into a truck en route to the talks. She was kept in hospital overnight for observation.

Martin Schulz, the SPD leader, who has acknowledged that failure in the talks is likely to be terminal for his own leadership, also spoke of ‘‘big obstacles’’ to a deal. He said his party wanted to ensure that the new government was committed ‘‘above all to working toward renewal of the European Union’’.

Given the electoral costs of the previous coalition, analysts said Schulz would need to win big concessions on immigration, EU integration and healthcare to convince the left wing of his party of the merits of any deal. As the election proved, these are hugely divisive issues, with the CDU right – and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU – adamant that Merkel must hold her ground over immigration and paying large sums to backstop the euro.

Merkel badly needed the talks to succeed, as did Schulz and Horst Seehofer, the leader of Merkel’s Bavarian allies, said Karl-Rudolf Korte, a political analyst from 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 said.

– Telegraph Group