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German parties start to find common ground in coalition talks

30 October 2017 20:54 (UTC +04:00)

The parties that are considering joining forces in Germany’s next government found common ground in talks on education and digital infrastructure on Monday, but remain far apart on issues that provoked stormy clashes among them last week, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Talks between conservatives, Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) resumed on Monday after Chancellor Angela Merkel convened a weekend meeting to clear the air between ideologically diverse parties forced by electoral arithmetic into awkward partnership.

“The weekend pause for thought did us good,” said Andreas Scheuer, a leader in the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). Other party leaders agreed.

But Monday’s talks, on education, digitalization, pensions and labor issues, as well as domestic security, were always expected to be less contentious than the immigration, fiscal and climate policies that divided them last week.

One sign of the division came in an interview Merkel ally Peter Altmaier gave to the newspaper Die Zeit, where he shot down media reports about a reshuffling of ministerial portfolios. Der Spiegel magazine reported the FDP might head a weakened finance ministry, with key European affairs functions hived off to another ministry.