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Germany's main parties head for coalition talks
Germany's two main parties were due to enter a third round of talks about forming a coalition government, but the process was threatened by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's refusal to make way for Angela Merkel. Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats have hinted that they may break off talks with the Social Democrats because of their insistence that Schroeder stay in his job as chancellor despite narrowly losing the September 18 elections. "There are no negotiations in the true sense as long as the SPD does not accept that our candidate will be chancellor," the secretary general of the Christian Democrats, Volker Kauder, told ARD public television. He urged Schroeder to accept "the reality of the situation after Dresden", the east German city where a delayed election on Sunday increased the Christian Democrats' lead in parliament by one seat. The Christian Democrats now have 226 seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, compared to the Social Democrats' 222. But the slim four-seat lead means neither party can govern by itself and the parties themselves have made clear that a so-called grand coalition between the left and the right seems the most logical way out of Germany's political impasse. The biggest obstacle remains the tug of war over the chancellery. Merkel has repeatedly urged Schroeder to concede that he lost the election, albeit by hardly one percentage point, and that she holds the mandate to govern. "We are not little boys playing cowboys and Indians. A majority is a majority," said Wolfgang Schaeuble, a leading member of the Christian Democrats. On Monday, Schroeder had briefly seemed for the first time to be on the verge of bowing out, only to have his party close ranks around him in an apparent bid to ensure that they negotiate on an equal footing with the election winners and secure the strongest possible deal. The leader of his Social Democrats, Franz Muentefering, said on Tuesday: "We will go into the negotiations with Gerhard Schroeder as candidate for the highest post in government. "It would be cheating if we pretended otherwise." Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said the party still saw no reason why Merkel should lead the country, "Why should we say that Mrs. Merkel should be chancellor ... What does she offer us," he told German local radio. Ludwig Stiegler, the deputy head of the SPD parliamentary group, said the issue of who would led an eventual grand coalition could come to a head in Wednesday's talks. "We are standing by Gerhard Schroeder and if the CDU says on Wednesday that this question must be resolved first then there will not be any negotiations. We will just drink our tea and go home." The talks, due to start at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), take place amid growing concern that the political stalemate is causing further damage to Germany's troubled economy. Figures released last week showed the number of jobless had risen by 39,000 to 4.835 million in September, bringing the unemployment rate up to 11.7 percent from 11.6 percent.
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