Merkel flags fresh election after coalition talks stall
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is "very sceptical" about the idea of running a minority government and a new election would be a better option if it's not possible to form a coalition.
Merkel's attempt to build a coalition of her conservatives and two smaller parties collapsed on Sunday.
Her partners in the outgoing government, the centre-left Social Democrats, insisted yesterday that they won't renew the alliance.
No other politically plausible combination has a parliamentary majority — leaving a minority government or a new election as the only options.
Weakened by a poor election result in September, the proposed coalition was Mrs Merkel's only shot at forming a new government.
Merkel said in an interview with ARD public television's Brennpunkt program:
The leader of Germany's Free Democrats has defended his decision to torpedo talks on forming a coalition government with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and the Greens, saying compromises needed would have gone against the pro-business party's fundamental principles.
Christian Lindner told reporters yesterday his party had attempted compromises but still found suggestions over its key topics of migration policies, financial issues and education too far removed from the "change in policies" that Germans voted for in the elections.
He says: "if the FDP had agreed to these, we would have had to abandon our fundamental positions."
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed concerns about the collapse of negotiations to form a coalition government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany.
Speaking in Paris yesterday, Macron said "it's not in our interest for it to get tense."
The relationship between France and Germany, the eurozone's two strongest economies, is seen as the driving force behind the European Union.
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