German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday was to make a last push to forge a government, in a twin battle to save her political future and avert fresh elections that could destabilize Germany and Europe.
Elections in September left the veteran leader weakened and without a majority as some of her party’s voters turned to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party because of anger over her liberal refugee policy.
The disputed decision to let in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015 is also proving to be a stumbling block as she seeks an alliance with an unlikely group of parties spanning the left and right of the political spectrum.
Photo: Reuters
Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian allies the Christian Social Union (CSU), hoping to find common ground with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens, gave themselves until yesterday to clinch a deal.
If they do not, Germany would have to hold new elections next year, as the center-left Social Democratic Party has ruled out returning to a coalition with Merkel after suffering a humiliating loss at September’s elections.
“Today is the last day of these exploratory talks. We must decide,” CSU leader Horst Seehofer said as he entered the talks in Berlin.
Greens leader Cem Ozdemir said that “so far we’ve been in extra time, but today it’s the penalty shoot-out.”
“Europe is anything but out of the crisis. Now it’s time to ask ourselves the question: Would France’s President [Emmanuel] Macron have to take the coal out of the fire because Germany is missing, or would Germany be capable of taking action?” Ozdemir said.
Merkel, who has years of grueling EU negotiations under her belt, now needs to see through what is likely the most important weekend of her political life.
“Today is not only about [the coalition], but also a day of destiny for Angela Merkel. If she fails to forge a coalition, then her chancellorship is in danger,” the top-selling Bild newspaper said.
An online poll by Welt newspaper found that 61.4 percent of those surveyed said a collapse of talks would mean an end to Merkel as chancellor, and only 31.5 percent thought otherwise.
Merkel, in power for 12 years, had initially set a deadline of Thursday to decide if the motley crew of parties had found enough common ground to begin formal coalition negotiations, but the talks went into overtime without a breakthrough.
Key among sticking points is the hot-button issue of immigration.
The CSU, which lost significant ground in Bavaria to the AfD and faces a crucial state election next year, wants to limit the number of future arrivals at 200,000 a year.
German media reports said the Greens were ready give way on the CSU’s demand, but in return, they insist that war refugees — who are granted only temporary protection — should be allowed to bring their family members to Germany.
“We will not accept that people who are already getting a lower status of protection by law are also excluded from family reunions. That is inhumane,” Greens negotiator Juergen Trittin told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier played down the conflict, telling the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that if negotiators are “battling hard over major questions like migration and climate change, that may not be a bad thing for democracy.”
There is “no need to start holding panic debates about new elections,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in