{"id":11741,"date":"2017-11-20T17:47:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T17:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=11741"},"modified":"2017-11-20T17:47:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T17:47:01","slug":"germany-coalition-talks-collapse-as-fdp-walks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/germany-coalition-talks-collapse-as-fdp-walks-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany coalition talks collapse as FDP walks out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Marathon talks on forming a coalition government in Germany have collapsed, plunging the eurozone\u2019s largest economy into a political crisis and casting doubt on Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s fourth\u00a0term.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP) unexpectedly called off more than four weeks of coalition talks with Merkel\u2019s conservative CDU\/CSU bloc and the left-leaning Greens as they failed to hammer out their differences over a range of issues, particularly immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Merkel, who has been in power for 12 years and known as a skilled negotiator, described the failure as a setback on Monday and apologized for the chaos.<\/p>\n

We \u201ccould have reached an agreement\u201d despite our differences in views, but \u201ccouldn\u2019t find any solution today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Merkel was forced to enter the make or break talks with rival factions after her Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian sister party, Christian Social Union (CSU), lost parliamentary majority despite winning the September elections.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Officials of Germany\u2019s CDU Party look on as they wait for, Chancellor Angela Merkel, to speak after exploratory talks on forming a new government broke down on November 19, 2017 in Berlin. (Photo by AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs chancellor, I will do everything to ensure that this country is well managed in the difficult weeks to come,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The failed coalition talks leave Merkel with three options: To form a minority government, approach her previous coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), or call for new elections.<\/p>\n

Merkel will now remain acting chancellor, but failure to prevent fresh elections is not without peril for the chancellor as her party may decide she is not the best candidate to lead them into a new electoral campaign.<\/p>\n

The chancellor said she would brief German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier later on Monday about the outcome of the three-way talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will consult with the president on how to move forward,\u201d Merkel said. \u201cIt is a day of deep reflection on how to go forward in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Christian Lindner arrives to make a statement after exploratory talks on forming a new government broke down on November 19, 2017 in Berlin. (Photo by AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian Lindner, leader of the FDP, said on Sunday that his party was withdrawing from the talks as the three would-be partners had irreconcilable differences, and that they could not find common ground on key issues, including migration, government spending, tax cuts and climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday there was no progress but rather there were setbacks because specific compromises were questioned,\u201d Lindner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is better not to rule than to rule the wrong way. Goodbye!\u201d the FDP head added.<\/p>\n

The FDP\u2019s withdrawal came after the negotiators missed a deadline of 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Sunday without a breakthrough in their discussions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marathon talks on forming a coalition government in Germany have collapsed, plunging the eurozone\u2019s largest economy into a political crisis and casting doubt on Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s fourth\u00a0term. Germany\u2019s pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP) unexpectedly called off more than four weeks of coalition talks with Merkel\u2019s conservative CDU\/CSU bloc and the left-leaning Greens as they …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11743,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11741\/revisions\/11743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}