German Coalition Options: Political Reality, Risk, Repercussions
- Renewed alliance with SPD remains likeliest outcome for Merkel
- Moves toward greater European Union integration are at stake
Merkel's Election Challenges
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s opinion-poll lead of close to 15 percentage points is shifting the focus in the final days before the German election to the question of which of three parties -- the Social Democrats, the liberal Free Democrats and the Greens -- will be her coalition partner, or partners, and what that might mean.
All are bracing for a lengthy period of soul searching, with talks due to start early in October and last possibly until Christmas. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian Christian Social Union ally will talk to potential partners before any decision on entering formal coalition negotiations. And that decision isn’t expected before a regional election in Lower Saxony on Oct. 15, because nobody wants the national discussions to affect the result of that state vote.