Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday vowed to work with the Social Democrats for the "good of Germany" as the centre-left party agreed to join her new coalition, but the veteran leader will go into her fourth term with weaker cards than before. Two in three of the SPD's rank and file voting in a crunch referendum backed a new partnership with Merkel's conservatives, heralding an end to the political stalemate that has plagued Europe's biggest economy since September's inconclusive elections.
But the chancellor, in power for 12 years, has has had to pay a high price to coax the reluctant Social Democratic Party (SPD) back into another loveless "grand coalition". Congratulating the SPD for its "clear result", Merkel said she was looking forward to "further cooperation for the good of our country," according to a tweet attributed to her on her CDU party's account.
Stung by their worst post-war results, the SPD had initially ruled out another four years under Merkel's shadow. But after Merkel's attempt to cobble together a government with two smaller parties failed, the SPD relented. With the party riven over the way forward, the leadership promised its more than 460,000 members the final say on any coalition deal.
"We now have clarity. The SPD will be in the next government," said SPD's caretaker chairman Olaf Scholz, adding his party plans to send three male and three female ministers to the cabinet. European partners waiting impatiently for Germany to end its longest stretch of coalition haggling since the end of the war heaved a sigh of relief, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling the SPD decision "good news for Europe."
In a nod to the "GroKo" as the grand right-left coalition is known in Germany, European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans wrote on Twitter: "GroGO! For solidarity in Germany and EU!" Merkel is expected to launch her fourth government by mid-March. But the long-serving leader faces a far rockier road ahead.
A crushing majority enjoyed by her conservatives and the SPD in the last coalition has been trimmed to a slim 56 percent (399 out of total 709) of seats in parliament this time round. Both sides had been weakened as voters angry about the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015 turned to the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
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