Merkel set for third round of coalition talks with Social Democrats

BERLIN, Germany – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservatives have announced they plan to hold a third round of talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) on Thursday, October 17, about the possibility of forming a coalition government.

After 8 hours of closed-door discussions in Berlin between representatives of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the SPD, CDU secretary general Hermann Groehe said a formal decision on more talks would be made later Tuesday, October 15.

That decision will follow meetings earlier in the day with the Greens, another possible coalition partner.

After all talks are completed, the Conservatives, led by Chancellor Merkel, will decide which party to work with in a bid to form a coalition.

That decision is expected by the end of the week.

Social Democratic (SPD) secretary general Andrea Nahles said the talks with the CDU were “very intensive”.

“On certain subjects we can see convergence, on others differences, for example on the minimum wage or on taxes,” she told a press conference with members of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU.

The idea of introducing an across-the-board minimum wage is a key policy promise of the SPD while the Conservatives have up to now preferred minimum wage levels to be negotiated by sector and region.

Despite those differences a CDU-Greens coalition appears a less likely outcome for Merkel’s third term as chancellor due to profound disagreements on social issues.

If, as appears most likely, the CDU chooses the Social Democrats as their preferred partner the latter will decide at a meeting of some 200 delegates on Sunday whether to accept the offer of coalition negotiations.

A recent poll showed two-thirds of Germans would favor a left-right ‘grand coalition’ between the two big parties, Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats.

Despite a convincing win at the polls on September 22 , Merkel needs to form an alliance with either the Social Democratic Party (SPD) or the Greens to ensure a majority in parliament.

Monday’s CDU-SPD talks were the second round of negotiations between the rival parties expected to form the kind of grand coalition which Merkel led between 2005-2009.

Groehe assured that the make up of the next government would be announced by October 22, within a month of the elections.

If a ‘grand coalition’ takes shape, the SPD has said it will push for a national minimum wage to help the country’s growing army of working poor. – Rappler.com