German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc has reached an agreement with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) to form a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties. The all-night talks secured a deal that will see the imposition of a national minimum wage and changes to both the pension system and rules surrounding dual citizenship. There was also a pledge not to raise taxes.
The talks became necessary after Merkel’s Christian Democrats’ (CDU) previous coalition partners, the centrist Free Democrats, failed to win a seat in the elections of SepT. 22. This left the CDU without a majority in parliament and in need of a new coalition partner.
Although the SPD are traditional rivals of the CDU, Merkel said the agreement was “very much in the theme of mutual trust.” Both sides seemed to feel that they had won crucial concessions, with the Secretary-General of the CDU, Hermann Groehe, claiming the deal had “a strong Conservative imprint,” while senior SPD MP Karl Lauterbach was quoted by the Associated Press as saying “the Social Democratic signature on this agreement is everywhere.”
Before Merkel can be sworn in for her third term, though, the deal is to be put to a ballot of the 470,000-strong membership of the SPD, with the result expected in mid-December. The last time the SPD formed a coalition with the CDU (2005-2009) the SPD suffered a heavy defeat in the subsequent poll.
[BBC]