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German president calls on party leaders to return to coalition talks Merkel hints fresh elections preferable to minority government as talks fail
(about 4 hours later)
The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has called on German political leaders to reconsider their positions the day after the collapse of coalition talks pushed the country into its worst political crisis in decades. Angela Merkel on Monday indicated that she would prefer fresh elections over a minority government as the collapse of German coalition talks posed the most serious threat to her power since she became chancellor more than a decade ago.
Coming out of talks with the chancellor, Angela Merkel, Steinmeier said he would meet all the party leaders this week. He urged a rethink that could allow them to form a government and sought to avoid a minority government under Merkel or fresh elections. Merkel, who has headed three coalitions since 2005, said she was “very sceptical” about ruling in a minority government and suggested she would stand again as a candidate if elections were called in the new year, telling public broadcaster ARD she was “a woman who has responsibility and is prepared to take responsibility in the future”.
“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 didn’t fulfil their responsibility,” he said after the talks. Exploratory talks to form the next German government had collapsed on Sunday night after the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) walked out of marathon negotiations with Merkel’s Christian Democrats, its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, and the Green Party.
The pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) had walked out of marathon negotiations shortly before midnight on Sunday, with its leader, Christian Lindner, saying there was no “common basis of trust” between the FDP, Merkel’s centre-right bloc and the Greens. It was “better not to govern than to govern badly”, he added. Germany’s president had earlier urged political parties to resume efforts to a build a governing coalition following a meeting with Merkel. “I expect the parties to make the formation of a new government possible in the foreseeable future,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, adding that the parties had a responsibility that “cannot be simply given back to the voters.”
The collapse is the most serious threat to Merkel’s power since she became chancellor in 2005. Elections in September saw Merkel’s bloc poll first place but with a reduced share of the vote and with the FDP and Greens as its only plausible coalition partners.
“It is a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany,” Merkel told reporters ahead of talks with Steinmeier. “As chancellor, I will do everything to ensure that this country is well managed in the difficult weeks to come.” The collapse in the talks and possibility of fresh elections brings further uncertainty for the British government over Brexit, which had hoped that a strong German coalition, including the FDP, might help smooth the next phase of negotiations.
If coalition talks do not resume, Merkel could seek to form a minority government, either with the FDP or the Greens, and gather support from other parties on individual policy votes. After a unusually constructive meeting last week with Merkel ally Manfred Weber, Theresa May, the British prime minister, was reported to be close to conceding to German demands for an increased divorce settlement in exchange for a favourable start to trade talks. The Brexit secretary, David Davis, also appealed directly to German business interests in Berlin on Friday.
Once all other options are exhausted, Steinmeier could dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. To get there, however, Steinmeier would need to first set in motion a complicated process involving a parliamentary vote on Merkel’s role as interim chancellor. The moves may however come as the prospect of any future assistance from the German government recedes over the horizon.
Merkel has been trying to forge a coalition between her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), the FDP and the Greens following federal elections at the end of September. Prolonged uncertainty in Berlin will also raise concerns in France, where Emmanuel Macron was pinning hopes of eurozone reforms on partnership with a strong German government. “It is not in France’s interest for things to get blocked,” the French president said at the start of a meeting with Bernard Accoyer, a leader of France’s opposition Les Républicains party.
Lindner said on Sunday the parties involved in the talks had missed several self-prescribed deadlines to resolve differences on migration and energy policies, and had “no common vision for modernisation of the country”. After a disappointing election result in September, Angela Merkel is struggling to build the political alliances she needs to gain a governing majority. 
A so-called “Jamaica” coalition – so named because the parties’ traditional colours are the same as those on the Jamaican flag – has previously been tested only at regional level, but was the only plausible coalition option open to Merkel. With many parties bruised by the experience of entering coalitions with Merkel’s party over the past twelve years, the German chancellor’s consensus-based approach seems to have reached a dead end. 
The Social Democrat leader, Martin Schulz, whose party has played junior partner to Merkel in the German government for the past four years, on Monday said it was “not available” for a repeat of the so-called grand coalition. He said it “was clear that the grand coalition had got the red card” and the SPD would welcome fresh elections. But in Merkel's party, the notoriously disciplined Christian Democratic Union, rebels eager to topple the leader are in short supply. Nor has Merkel managed to groom a candidate with the credibility required to follow in her footsteps. 
A repeat of the grand coalition between the two largest parties would also result in the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, the third largest party, becoming the official opposition and gain enhanced status in the Bundestag. If there are fresh elections in 2018, it is not without question that the German chancellor could end up profiting from the acrimonious end to exploratory coalition talks and improve her share of the vote.
Merkel described the FDP’s walkout as “regrettable” on Sunday night and insisted the parties would have been capable of reaching a compromise, in spite of their polarised views on migration. Steinmeier earlier appealed for German politicians to think of Europe as he called for coalition talks to resume. “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, didn’t fulfil their responsibility,” he said.
In a month of talks, she has often cut a passive figure as party representatives found themselves at loggerheads over issues such as the question of how many of the migrants who found their way to Germany in 2015 and 2016 would be allowed to be reunited with their families. Going in to meet the president, Merkel said it was a “day of deep reflection on how to go forward” in Germany. “As chancellor, I will do everything to ensure that this country is well managed in the difficult weeks to come,” she told reporters.
Migration emerged as a contentious political issue in Germany following the refugee crisis, when 1.2 million migrants entered the country in 2015-16. The backlash against Merkel’s decision to keep open Germany’s borders has resulted in a far-right party entering the German parliament for the first time in more than 50 years. Christian Democrat and Green negotiators on Monday stressed the common ground that had emerged between the two parties during the weeks of talks and focused their criticism on FDP leader Christian Lindner.
The CDU, the CSU and the FDP have, at times, worked to outdo each other on calling for a harder line on migration controls in the coalition talks. Lindner left the talks on Sunday saying the parties involved had missed several self-prescribed deadlines to resolve differences on migration and energy policies, and had “no common vision for modernisation of the country”.
According to reports in German media, the Green party suggested a compromise over the weekend whereby they would agree to limit Germany’s annual intake of migrants to a benchmark figure of 200,000 – as long as other parties did not rule out allowing migrants with “subsidiary protection” status to be reunited with their families. “We continue to treat each other with respect and respect the [FDP’s] decision”, said Julia Klöcker, a CDU delegate. Kristina Schröder, a former Christian Democrat family minister, tweeted that the Free Democrats’ walk-out had “discredited” the possibility of a CDU-FDP minority government.
The parties also struggled to find common ground on climate change, with the Greens calling for a reduction in coal-generated power while its potential coalition partners have expressed concerns about job losses in the energy and manufacturing sectors. Veteran Green politician Jürgen Trittin prophesied that the pro-business party would have “a tough time” explaining its intransigence to voters seeking a responsible government in turbulent political times. Rather than taking the opportunity to make a difference on policies it cared about, such as phasing out the “solidarity surcharge” tax introduced to help fund German reunification, he said, the Free Democrats had “done a runner”.
If the talks had been successful, negotiations would have moved to the next stage, in which a document with fundamental agreements provides the basis for the carving up of ministerial roles. FDP leader Lindner defended his walk-out, saying a continuation of the talks would have required his party to depart from their core policy convictions: “We wanted a political tide change, and that was not possible at this point,” he said.
While the debate in Germany over the past few weeks has mainly focused on policy differences between the parties, it is likely to soon shift to the chancellor, and the question of whether or not she still commands sufficient power to hold together a strong government. The possibility of fresh elections in spring 2018 will continue to loom on the horizon in spite of the president’s appeal, however.
German’s constitution requires the president to nominate a chancellor for approval by the German parliament, the Bundestag. If no stable government can be formed after three rounds of voting there, the president would have to ask Germans to return to the polls.
The Social Democratic party, junior partner in a “grand coalition” with Merkel last term, on Monday ruled out talks about a similar arrangement for the next four years and signalled its appetite for a return to the polls.
“Two months after the federal elections the Christian Democratic Union, the Greens and the FDP have brought Germany into a difficult situation”, said SPD leader Martin Schulz. “We consider it important that citizens get the opportunity to consider the situation anew. We are not afraid of new elections.”
News of the collapsed talk was received with noticeable disappointment elsewhere in Europe. “Germany is the last country that can afford an unstable government”, said Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn.