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Germany coalition talks: Merkel aides see breakthrough | Germany coalition talks: Merkel aides see breakthrough |
(about 2 hours later) | |
German politicians have achieved a breakthrough in talks aimed at forming a new coalition government. | German politicians have achieved a breakthrough in talks aimed at forming a new coalition government. |
A 28-page blueprint for negotiations was agreed between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their former coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD). | |
Politicians stayed up all night thrashing out a deal, with the talks lasting more than 24 hours. | |
But they managed to reach agreement on key sticking points such as migration. | |
They plan to limit asylum-seeker arrivals to about 200,000 annually. The blueprint also speaks of capping at 1,000 a month the number of migrants who will be allowed to join their family living in Germany. | |
The talks also focused on tax changes, German media say. The CDU is pushing to scrap the solidarity tax paid for developing former communist east Germany. | |
The CDU and its Bavarian CSU ally have been unable to form a government since inconclusive elections in September. | The CDU and its Bavarian CSU ally have been unable to form a government since inconclusive elections in September. |
It is Germany's longest ever post-war period of coalition-building and there is still a long way to go before a coalition deal can be clinched. | |
The SPD will hold a special congress in Bonn on 21 January to decide how to proceed. | |
German public broadcaster ARD says it is the longest talks marathon that Mrs Merkel has endured as German leader. | |
Her previous records were 17 hours spent negotiating the Minsk ceasefire deal for Ukraine in February 2015 and 17 hours discussing a eurozone bailout for Greece in July 2015. |