BERLIN (AA) - Leading members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the opposition Social Democrats could not reach an overall agreement at the end of their eight-hour preliminary coalition talks on Monday.
Herman Groehe, the deputy leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), told reporters early Tuesday that they might hold a third round of exploratory talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) on Thursday. But he added that the third round will depend on the outcome of their meeting with the Green Party, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Merkel’s Christian Union Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) have already disclosed that their preferred coalition partner would be the Social Democrats (SPD). But in the event of a failure to bridge differences with the SPD, Greens are seen as the alternative for Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance.
- No concrete result
Monday’s meeting between the high level negotiation teams of the CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD was expected to be the "decisive" round of preliminary coalition talks.
SPD’s secretary general Andrea Nahles told reporters after the meeting that the talks had brought "more clarity" to key issues dividing the parties, but yielded no concrete agreement.
According to the party officials, the talks had focused on Europe, finance policy, energy transition, investments and minimum wage.
SPD has recently signaled flexibility towards compromise on a number of key issues but insisted on the introduction of a blanket minimum wage.
Social Democrats demand nationwide legal minimum wage of 8.50 euros an hour. Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance has several reservations on the SPD’s demand.
Ralf Stegner, head of the left wing of the SPD, told public radio Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday that his party would not make any concessions on their key demand of nationwide legal minimum wage. Without a policy change in government, there would be no coalition, he stressed.
Chancellor Merkel's CDU/CSU alliance won a victory in the September 22 elections, but failed to secure an absolute majority at the parliament. Its junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), failed to cross the five-percent threshold, forcing the chancellor to find a new coalition partner.
For a stable and strong government, Chancellor Merkel needs the support of the Social Democrats (SPD). The main opposition party SPD won 193 of the 631 seats at the Bundestag. Greens have 63 seats.
More importantly, SPD currently dominates the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament. Social Democrats may block any legal initiative by the federal government at the Bundesrat.
German Chancellor is seeking to clarify her coalition partner before the first meeting of the new German parliament set for October 22. Until that day Merkel wants to reach an overall agreement for entering formal coalition talks either with the Social Democrats or the Green Party.
Social democrats will gather their mini party convention on October 20. If the preliminary talks with Merkel’s conservatives would bridge major differences, then the SPD’s mini party convention will decide on whether or not to proceed to "formal coalition negotiations" with the CDU/CSU alliance.
At the end of the formal negotiations, any preliminary agreement with the CDU/CSU still has to be approved by the 470 thousand members of the SPD in a mini-referendum.
