German Coalition Parties Downplay Discord Before Key Talks
Markus Soeder, Friedrich Merz, Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken, left to right, in Berlin, on March 28.
Photographer: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
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German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats sounded upbeat as they began what should be a final stretch of talks on forming the next government of Europe’s biggest economy.
Merz and 18 other top officials from his CDU/CSU bloc and the center-left SPD are looking to iron out remaining obstacles over the next few weeks and their self-imposed target is to have a coalition deal done by Easter on April 20. Negotiations so far were spread across 16 working groups involving more than 200 party officials.