SPD and coalition with Merkel

Two out of three SPD members back Merkel coalition

Dietmar Nietan, the head of the SPD's counting commission, and Olaf Scholz, deputy SPD chairman announce the result at the party's Berlin headquarters on Sunday. Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

AFP

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4 March 2018 

07:32 CET+01:00 

The members of Germany's second biggest party have approved a plan to join Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition, German media reported on Sunday.

Sixty-six percent of the Social Democratic Party's rank and file backed a new partnership with Merkel's conservatives, clearing the final hurdle in the way of a fourth government led by the veteran leader.

 

The make or break vote was the last hurdle in the way of Merkel's fourth term in office and essentially ends a political stalemate that has plagued the country since September's inconclusive elections.

   

Stung by their worst post-war results, the SPD had initially ruled out another four years under Merkel's shadow. But after Merkel's attempt to cobble together a government with two smaller parties failed, the SPD relented while promising its more than 460,000 members the final say on any coalition deal.   

 

The leadership of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) hammered out a hard-fought deal with Merkel's conservative bloc in February. 

 

The vote opens the way for Merkel to launch her fourth government by mid-March. 

   

The SPD's leadership appealed to members' sense of responsibility to voters as it urged them to approve the coalition deal. Party chiefs also argued that they had wrested a maximum amount of concessions from the conservatives, including control over the crucial finance and foreign ministries.

   

A survey published by YouGov in the final days of the voting, which began on February 20 and closed Friday, suggested that the yes camp was slightly ahead, with 56 percent of SPD supporters among the public backing a new partnership with Merkel. It is not clear whether card-carrying SPD members are equally open to the

deal.

   

Top SPD politicians including Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had also voiced confidence that members would plump for a new round in government.

 

But the SPD's young members had spearheaded a rebellion, with the party's youth wing leader criss-crossing the country over the last weeks making an impassioned case against the coalition. They argued that governing for another four years under Merkel's shadow would sound the death knell for the party.

 

Merkel faced a rockier ride in the new government, as the two coalition partners will have only a slim 56 percent (399 out of total 709) of seats in parliament, far down from the crushing majority they have enjoyed over the previous four years.

   

In a sign of the reluctant collaboration, the two sides have agreed on a clause to review their cooperation in two years.

   

Merkel, once the seemingly invincible leader of her party and the nation, is believed to be in the twilight of her reign as she is weakened by her protracted struggle to put together a viable coalition.

   

For the chancellor, who is under pressure within her party to rejuvenate her ranks, the clock is ticking to groom her successor.  At a congress this week, her party formally appointed its new general secretary, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, tapped by Merkel to kickstart the renewal process.

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