{"id":132393,"date":"2017-11-19T21:34:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T02:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=132393"},"modified":"2017-11-19T21:34:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T02:34:29","slug":"german-government-talks-collapse-merkel-seeks-to-reassure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/19\/german-government-talks-collapse-merkel-seeks-to-reassure\/","title":{"rendered":"German government talks collapse; Merkel seeks to reassure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Photo: Angela Merkel\/ Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BERLIN \u2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged early Monday to maintain stability after the Free Democratic Party pulled out of talks on forming a new government with her conservative bloc and the left-leaning Greens, raising the possibility of new elections.<\/p>\n

Merkel told reporters that the parties had been close to reaching a consensus on how to proceed with formal coalition talks but that the Free Democrats decided abruptly to pull out just before midnight Sunday \u2014 a move she said she respected, but found \u201cregrettable.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she would consult with Germany’s president later in the day to brief him on the negotiations and discuss what comes next.<\/p>\n

Without bringing the Free Democrats back to the table, Merkel will be forced to try to continue her current governing coalition with the Social Democrats, although that centre-left party has said it will not do so, or she could try to form a minority government, which was seen as unlikely. Otherwise Germany will have to hold new elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is at least a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany,\u201d Merkel said. \u201cBut I will do everything possible to ensure that this country will be well led through these difficult weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and sister Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, the pro-business Free Democrats and the left-leaning Greens had already blown past Merkel’s own deadline of Thursday to agree on a basis for opening formal negotiations on a coalition of all four parties, a configuration that has never been tried at a national level in Germany.<\/p>\n

Key sticking points were the issues of migration and climate change.<\/p>\n

Among other things the Greens were pushing for Germany to end its use of coal and combustion engines by 2030, though they had signalled they were open to some compromise.<\/p>\n

The other parties are also committed to reducing carbon emissions, but Merkel’s bloc hadn’t put a date on when to phase out coal. The Free Democrats also expressed concern about what the moves would mean for jobs and Germany’s economic competitiveness.<\/p>\n

On migration, the Christian Social Union wanted an annual cap on refugees, while the Greens sought to allow more categories of recent migrants to bring their closest relatives to join them.<\/p>\n

Merkel said that \u201cwe thought we were on a path where we could have reached agreement,\u201d when that the Free Democrats decided to pull out.<\/p>\n

Free Democrat leader Christian Lindner told reporters that his party decided to withdraw rather than further compromise its principles and sign on to policies the party was not convinced of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is better not to govern, than to govern falsely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Greens politician Reinhard Buetikofer criticized Lindner’s decision, saying on Twitter that the Free Democrat had chosen \u201ca kind of populist agitation instead of governmental responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, if it comes to a new election, polls currently suggest it would produce a very similar parliament to the current one, which would make efforts to form a new government similarly difficult.<\/p>\n

Though Merkel could also abandon the Free Democrats and the Greens and instead form a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats, her current partners in the outgoing government, the Social Democrats have been adamant about going into opposition following its disastrous result in the Sept. 24 election.<\/p>\n

Party leader Martin Schulz as recently as Sunday again ruled out the possibility of pairing up with Merkel’s bloc to form a new government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BERLIN \u2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged early Monday to maintain stability after the Free Democratic Party pulled out of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":102350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[309,34001,14877],"class_list":["post-132393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-collapse","tag-free-democratic-party","tag-german-chancellor-angela-merkel","mauthors-david-rising","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}