Germany’s SPD ready for talks with Merkel to break deadlock - Financial times

Germany’s SPD ready for talks with Merkel to break deadlock

Centre-left party drops call for elections in favour of deal with conservative rivals

SPD debates rejoining Merkel ‘grand coalition’

SPD chairman Martin Shulz, left, leaves the Schloss Bellevue presidential palace on Thursday where he led talks with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Germany’s Social Democrats are ready to talk to their conservative rivals about the formation of a government led by Angela Merkel in a potentially decisive move to break the political deadlock in Berlin.

The decision, announced early on Friday after an eight-hour meeting of SPD leaders in Berlin, marks a U-turn for the centre-left party, which had backed new elections as recently as Monday.

“The SPD is firmly convinced that talks have to take place. The SPD is not closed to talks,” Hubertus Heil, the general secretary, said early on Friday.

Germany politics

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Manuela Schwesig, the deputy party leader, made clear the SPD had yet to decide whether a revival of the grand coalition with Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, its Bavarian sister party, was a serious option. Another possibility floated by SPD officials in recent days is the formation of a Merkel-led minority government that would rely on Social Democrat backing for certain key votes.

“Just because we say we are open to talks doesn’t mean that these are automatically talks about a grand coalition, and it is certainly not a vote in favour of a grand coalition,” she told German television on Friday.

Martin Schulz, the SPD leader who has resisted any move to rejoin a Merkel-led government, has come under growing pressure to reverse his stance since the smaller, free-market Free Democratic party withdrew from coalition talks last week, plunging Germany into a rare bout of political uncertainty.

Although the September elections left Ms Merkel’s centre-right bloc as the largest political group in the new Bundestag, her party emerged weakened and with no easy path towards a governing majority. With the rightwing Alternative for Germany and the anti-Nato Die Linke (the Left) shunned by establishment parties, the four in the centre have struggled more than ever to agree terms.

Mr Schulz held a closed-door meeting ahead of the intraparty debate with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, who has urged the former European Parliament president to reconsider his resistance. 

Mr Steinmeier, himself a former SPD foreign minister, has made clear repeatedly he wants to avoid new elections, and has urged party leaders on all sides to show flexibility and readiness to compromise.

For Mr Schulz, the decision to hold talks with the chancellor is an awkward one that could further damage his authority in the party. On Monday, he ruled out talks with the CDU — and in particular any move to revive the grand coalition. Mr Schulz also said the SPD was ready to go to new elections. 

German parties' political dilemma

But his stance has faced mounting criticism inside and outside the party in recent days, with a growing number of SPD officials saying they wanted negotiations.

On Thursday, more Social Democrats came out in favour of a minority government led by Ms Merkel, signalling the SPD’s readiness to back such an administration on key votes — for example on the budget or EU policy. But others made clear the SPD would also have to examine a return to the grand coalition.

“We will, if nothing else is possible, also have to think about a grand coalition,” Karl Lauterbach, an SPD MP, said on Thursday.

Stefan Zierke, another SPD lawmaker and spokesman for the party’s deputies from eastern Germany, said: “If you want to implement projects, if you really want to move forward social democracy in Germany, then you have to be in government.”

On Wednesday Mr Schulz himself signalled the SPD might be ready to shift its stance, saying he was “fully aware of its responsibility in the current difficult situation”. He added: “I’m sure we will find a good solution for our country in the coming days and weeks.” 

Despite the recent public pronouncement, many SPD leaders remain deeply reluctant to revive the idea of a cross-party coalition with Ms Merkel, pointing to the Social Democrats’ historic defeat in September’s general election. The debacle at the ballot box, in which the party won just 20.5 per cent of the vote, has been widely blamed on the decision to join the CDU-CSU as junior partners four years ago. 

Analysts said the SPD would have to handle the forthcoming talks with care and avoid any impression that it was rushing back into the arms of Ms Merkel. Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin, said ordinary party members might be ready to back an SPD decision to let Ms Merkel take the helm of a minority administration — but not a full coalition agreement. 

“The party must be careful to avoid accusations that it wants to sneak back into government. It has to keep a clear distance [to a new Merkel administration],” Mr Neugebauer said.

Sensing the change in the political climate, senior members of Ms Merkel’s party have redoubled their efforts to bring the SPD back into the fold — while voicing a clear preference for a grand coalition over a minority government. Armin Laschet, the CDU prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the country needed a stable government: “Germany cannot be ruled by a minority government,” he added.