Germany Inches Closer to a New, Old Government
Andrea Nahles, parliamentary whip for the Social Democrats, said
that her party’s leadership would meet on Wednesday with its counterparts from Ms. Merkel’s conservatives to begin the process that a majority of Germans, according to recent opinion polls, hope will lead to a fourth chancellorship for Ms. Merkel.
Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats lost even more support — 7 percentage points —
but remained the strongest party, with the task of seeking partners to build a government.
Last week, the chancellor sat down with Mr. Steinmeier, Mr. Schulz,
and the head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of her own Christian Democratic Union, to determine whether they could talk.
8, 2017
BERLIN — Germany inched toward a new government on Friday, as leaders from the center-left Social Democrats, the previous partners
of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, agreed to sit down next week for exploratory talks on resuming the arrangement.
After that effort collapsed last month, the country’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose responsibility it would be to call new elections, told politicians it was their job, not
that of voters, to find a solution, leading Ms. Merkel to turn again to her most recent partners.
Mr. Schulz said that What matters is what we are able to implement,
The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was voted into Parliament for the first time, as the third-strongest party,
draining support from the two main parties in a significant showing of voter anger over immigration and inequality.