Merkel backs new vote in coalition impasse

German chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is “very sceptical” about the idea of running a minority government and a new election would be a better option if it is not possible to form a coalition.

Mrs Merkel’s attempt to build a coalition of her conservatives and two smaller parties collapsed on Sunday. Her partners in the outgoing government, the centre-left Social Democrats, insisted that they will not renew the alliance.

No other politically plausible combination has a parliamentary majority, leaving a minority government or a new election as the only options.

Germany’s president has urged the political parties to reconsider their positions and make it possible to form a new government.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who would have to decide on those options, urged the various parties to rethink.

Mr Steinmeier said: “There would be incomprehension and great concern inside and outside our country, and particularly in our European neighbourhood, if the political forces in the biggest and economically strongest country in Europe of all places did not fulfil their responsibility.”

Germany’s September 24 election produced an awkward result that left Mrs Merkel’s two-party conservative bloc seeking a coalition with the probusiness Free Democrats and the traditionally leftleaning Greens.

The combination of ideologically disparate parties had not been tried before in a national government, and came to nothing when the Free Democrats walked out of talks on Sunday night.

Angela Merkel