German ‘coalition talks to be tough’
DISCUSSIONS ON POWER SHARING BETWEEN CONSERVATIVES AND SPD COULD RUN INTO TODAY OR TOMORROW
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that her conservatives faced tough negotiations with the Social Democrats (SPD) yesterday as they strive to form a ruling coalition, and it was unclear when the two blocs would be able to wrap up the talks.
More than four months after a national election, Europe’s largest economy and pre-eminent power broker is in political paralysis, causing concern among investors and partner countries that policymaking on key issues like Britain’s looming departure from the European Union and Eurozone reform may be held up.
The conservatives and SPD had set themselves yesterday’s deadline to agree on renewing the “grand coalition” that has governed since 2013 but some politicians said that the discussions could run into today or tomorrow — and even then SPD grass roots members still need to agree to any deal.
“It’s not yet possible to say how long it will last — we did good groundwork yesterday but there are still important issues that need to be resolved,” Merkel, in office for 12 years, said before heading into negotiations. The parties reached agreements on energy and agriculture on Saturday but continued to haggle over health care.
Merkel, who is betting on the SPD to secure her fourth term in office, added: “I’m going into talks with goodwill today, but I also expect that we’ll face difficult negotiations.” SPD leader Martin Schulz said the opposing sides had edged closer on many issues in recent days but remained at odds over his party’s demand to abolish fixedterm contracts for workers and its call to replace Germany’s dual public-private health care system with one insurance system for all.
Health care and labour market policy are crucial for the SPD, whose 443,000 members — many of whom oppose forming another awkward partnership with Merkel after their party suffered its worst postwar result in September’s election — will get the chance to veto any final coalition deal.
“We’ll have to negotiate very, very intensively on these issues today and I think agreements are possible but they still haven’t been reached,” Schulz said.
Sweeping reforms
The conservatives have rejected SPD calls for sweeping reform of health insurance and talks are now expected to focus on improving public health care, such as by changing billing rules for doctors, who earn more by treating private patients.
Labour market policy is another serious stumbling block — Merkel’s bloc does not want to ban fixed-term contracts like the SPD but has offered to prevent the repeated renewal of such contracts as a compromise.
Two negotiating sources told Reuters that the parties had reached an agreement on residential rents and construction of social housing, issues they had been wrangling over on Saturday, but this deal still needed to be approved by senior negotiators.
Schulz said he wanted talks to progress swiftly but that the parties should not put themselves under huge time pressure as this would not be helpful in the final phase of negotiations.
“Ultimately it’s necessary to take the time you need to create a stable foundation for a stable government,” he said, adding that yesterday’s talks could run into the night.