Last weekend, the leaders of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) agreed to pursue a grand coalition with main opposition party Social Democrats (SPD) after tri-party coalition talks with Free Democrats and the Green Party collapse a week before with an abrupt exit by the FDP leader Christian Linder. Previously, Martin Schultz, the leader of SPD rejected re-allying with CDU/CSU after 12 years as a coalition partner and said that his party would sit in the opposition at Bundestag. However, intense pressure to avoid a re-election and thanks to intervention by former SPD foreign minister and now the President Frank Walter Steinmeier. Since 2005, Chancellor Merkel has ruled Germany in a grand coalition with SPD. This year SPD had initially chosen to leave the coalition.
Several European leaders have emphasized the importance of getting a stable German government in place quickly so the bloc can discuss its future, including proposals by French President Emmanuel Macron on eurozone reforms and Brexit.
Merkel, who made clear on Saturday she would pursue a grand coalition, says that an acting government under her leadership can do business until a new coalition is formed.
