Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized her party's coalition partner for breaking its word on policy pledges and said she would form a government with another grouping if she wins next year's general election, upping the stakes a year before Germans go to the polls.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Party is facing re-election next September after ruling with the Social Democrats since 2005. While they have worked together to narrow the budget deficit and renewed Germany's close cooperation with France to give the two countries more clout in the European Union, the CDU has clashed with its partner over plans to lower taxes, drop plans to scrap nuclear energy and introduce a minimum wage.

``We're dealing with a coalition partner that's becoming increasingly unreliable,'' Merkel said at a meeting of local CDU leaders in Berlin today. ``We've achieved a great deal, but we need a different political constellation, and that's why we aim to form a coalition with the Liberals.''

The CDU has criticized the SPD for saying it may cooperate with the Left Party in the western state of Hesse, Germany's financial heartland that includes Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank. The Social Democrats may renege on a pledge not to work with the Left, an amalgam of former East German communists, union activists and breakaway SPD members.

New Wall?

``We'll see much of the SPD promising just about everything'' in the run-up to the election, Merkel said. ``As though globalization could be brought under control by building a wall around Germany -- but this time around the whole of Germany,'' she added, referring to the Berlin Wall, which fell in 1989.

According to a poll for Stern magazine this week, Merkel's party and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, would win an absolute majority together with the business-friendly Free Democrats if the election were held now. The Christian Democrats had 37 percent support, while the Social Democrats had just 21 percent, the survey showed.

The Free Democrats have shared power at the national level for 41 of the 59 years since the Federal Republic was founded in 1949. In the 2005 election, their return to office as junior partner in a CDU-led coalition was only barred by the resurgence of the Left Party, forcing Merkel to side with the Social Democrats in Germany's first Grand Coalition government since 1969.

The SPD's only chance may be Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel's foreign minister and his party's deputy chairman. While he is more popular with voters than the chancellor, the Social Democrats haven't yet nominated a candidate to run against her in the 2009 election.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katya Andrusz in Berlin at kandrusz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2008 09:05 EDT