Majority of Germans oppose Merkel-led 'grand-coalition’

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN

More than half of Germans are against another "grand coalition” between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats, a new poll has revealed.

The poll by the public broadcaster ARD found 52 percent of the Germans believed Merkel’s coalition with Social Democratic Party (SPD) would be “bad” or “less good” for Germany.

And 45 percent supported a coalition government. Skepticism over another “grand coalition” was higher among the voters of the SPD.

While 69 percent of the CDU/CSU voters supported joining a coalition with the Social Democrats, only 46 percent of the SPD voters said they were in favour of a conservative-led grand coalition government.

51 percent of the SPD voters said “grand coalition” would be “bad” or “less good”.

The SPD’s party conference on Thursday gave the go-ahead for preliminary coalition talks with Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc, after eight hours of heated debate at the conference.

SPD leader Martin Schulz told delegates that preliminary talks would be conducted in an "open-ended" way, and would not necessarily mean Social Democrats would become part of a coalition government.

Schulz is scheduled to meet Merkel and Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer on Wednesday,

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party CSU constituted the largest bloc after federal elections on Sept. 24, but they failed to secure an absolute majority in the parliament.

Her efforts to create a three-way government with the liberal FDP and Greens failed after weeks of negotiations following the election.