News / Germany

Germany’s Merkel upbeat coalition with SPD will work

Sunday, 04 March 2018 2:20 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 04 March 2018 6:01 PM ]

This file photo taken on February 27, 2018 shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin. (AFP photo)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed optimism that a coalition between her conservative alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) would benefit the country.

Merkel said Sunday after SPD members approved of a coalition with the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that the partnership would work for the “good of Germany”.

Nearly two-thirds of SPD’s 464,000 rank and file members voted for the party to renew a so-called grand coalition with the CDU that has ruled Germany for the past 12 years. The approval allows Merkel to finally begin her fourth term in office.

The CDU and SPD reached the coalition deal earlier this month and after weeks of fierce negotiations that saw Merkel relinquish the key ministry of finance, among other concessions. That would certainly put Merkel in a weaker position compared to her previous governments, something that may also undermine her authority as the de-facto leader of the European Union.

Both the CDU and SPD scored poor results in the September general elections with many blaming it on the refugee-friendly policies adopted by the two parties in the previous government. The SPD initially resisted to go into another coalition with the CDU but then relented after Merkel failed to reach a deal with two lesser-known parties.

The formation of the GroKo, the German term coined to designate the loveless grand coalition, is also a sign of a growing fear in Germany’s two biggest parties about the growing clout of the far right in the country. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the biggest opposition group in the parliament, won nearly 13 percent of the votes in the September election by mostly capitalizing on woes of the refugee policy.

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