Merkel’s Party Plays Hardball With Coalition Future in Doubt
- CDU leader says blueprint for government can’t be renegotiated
- SPD elected coalition critics to leadership, rejecting Scholz
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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party told the new leadership of the Social Democrats that there will be no renegotiation of the terms of their alliance and they can quit the governing coalition if they can’t accept that.
The SPD on Saturday picked government critics Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken to take the party forward over Merkel’s Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The new leaders said they will demand policy changes if they are to maintain their support, and their terms will be set out at a three-day SPD conference starting Friday in Berlin.