Desperate Angela Merkel to buckle to save political skin as SPD agrees to talks

And the desperate Chancellor is likely to make heavy concessions after the SPD’s leader Martin Schulz reluctantly agreed to enter into negotiations.

Mrs Merkel must form an alliance that will prop up her Christian Democrat party after her disastrous election results in September.

vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.

The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.

Last week, SPD leader Martin Schulz met with Mrs Merkel, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and CSU leader Horst Seehofer.

But Mr Schulz was quick to point out that it “was not automatic” that talks would lead to a grand coalition.

He is aware that the idea of a coalition is deeply unpopular among members of his party. He has even promised members a ballot on any coalition deal to calm fears.

Today, Mr Schulz said his priority during negotiations is to ensure that his party’s policies get maximum exposure.

He said: “We will explore whether and how the formation of a government is possible in Germany. We know what we want with regard to content.” 

The SPD leaders have already named key policy demands in a document seen by Reuters – as they know Mrs Merkel is in a difficult position and needs their help.

The demands including harmonising corporate taxes on a European level, higher taxes for high-wage earners, increased investments in education, high-speed internet, roads and social housing.

And Mrs Merkel will need to convince Mr Schulz the so-called ‘grand coalition’ between the CDU and SPD is worth it, so he can argue the case to his unconvinced party members. 

Kevin Kuehnert, head of the Social Democrats’ youth wing, slammed the idea of a grand coalition.

He told ZDF television there were “examples that show why we consider this ‘grand coalition’ the wrong idea, because the positions are so far apart” – among them the question of migrants’ relatives.

The Social Democrats want migrants’ families to be allowed to join them in Germany.

But senior conservative Horst Seehofer told Tuesday’s Bild daily he “cannot imagine” agreeing, saying it would lead to “massive immigration”.

And, Mrs Merkel’s conservatives are painfully aware that they lost support to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right party because of anger at her decision in 2015 to allow a million asylum seekers in.

In the latest round of talks the leaders will try to decide if they can create a new government, with all options on the table, a senior SPD official said.

Shortly after the general elections – when the SPD received just 20 percent of the vote, Mr Schulz stated that Germany would go into opposition. But he has since done a U-turn.

SPD members will discuss the proposals by the SPD leadership during a party congress in Berlin on December 7 to 9.

The SPD, which has governed in coalition under Merkel since 2013, suffered its worst election result in postwar history in late September.

The lack of support from voters made the party reluctant to join another “grand coalition”, fearing it would again be smothered in a new tie-up with the conservatives.

But Michael Roth, a deputy foreign minister, argued that the Social Democrats should enter a new coalition for the sake of efforts to reform the European Union, championed by French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Mrs Merkel’s bloc, he argued in an article in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, doesn’t want “far-reaching institutional reform.”

He added: “Only if Germany’s role as the reform motor in the EU is agreed in binding and concrete form in a coalition deal can this succeed – but not in the framework of parliamentary support agreements” for a minority government.