Various reports/comments this week-end suggesting that Chancellor Merkel’s CDU party and the SPD are close to agreeing terms for the second “Grand Coalition” in less than a decade, but it’s still not a certainty and is fraught with concerns/distrust on both sides.
There is talk that a deal could be announced by Wednesday but Der Spiegel magazine reports that scepticism is high in local SPD groups ahead of a high-stakes party referendum in early December, where 470,000 rank-and-file members will get to vote on the coalition.
Were they to veto the deal, which still seems unlikely, Germany could face many more months of political uncertainty, and possibly even new elections.
Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament and a top negotiator for the SPD in the talks has said:
We really need to pull together to bring the party along. This is not a done deal by any means
Reuters carries this story.
