German Coalition Talks Enter the Endgame
- Rival parties inch toward Sunday deadline for negotations
- Merkel, SPD move forward with deal on education policy
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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc and Germany’s Social Democrats secured an agreement on education even as “large” policy differences remain, a top party official said as parties near a self-imposed weekend deadline.
Negotiators in Berlin remain willing to compromise, Andreas Scheuer, the general secretary of the Christian Social Union, the sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said after four hours of top-level talks. The parties are closing in on a deadline for a deal by Sunday, though they’ve given themselves two more days if outstanding issues arise.