Berliner Tageszeitung - German conservatives, SPD to make first moves towards new govt

The head of the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance, Friedrich Merz, who is expected to become Germany's next chancellor, has urged speedy talks towards forging a ruling alliance to end months of political paralysis in Berlin.

His bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz will each send a nine-member team to the talks, party sources told AFP.

Merz, 69, has set a deadline of mid-April for an inter-party coalition agreement, arguing Europe's biggest economy must soon be ready to act at a time of geopolitical turbulence and as the German economy has shrunk for two years in a row.

"The world isn't waiting for us," he said after Sunday's election win, calling for urgent action on his top campaign pledges of controlling irregular immigration and reviving the economy.

Merz's conservatives won Sunday's elections with 28.5 percent of the vote, while the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz scored a historic low of 16.4 percent.

The far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second, with a record score of over 20 percent, but all other parties have vowed to keep them out of power.

- Grand coalition -

The make-up of the incoming Bundestag leaves a coalition between the conservatives and the Social Democrats as the only politically feasible option to form a government.

It would be the fourth time since the turn of the millennium and the fifth time in Germany's post-war history that the parties have governed together in a so-called grand coalition -- always under the leadership of the CDU/CSU.

The Social Democrats' poor result in Sunday's vote spelt the end for Scholz, who will continue as chancellor until his successor is named.

The baton will be passed to other senior members of the SPD for the exploratory discussions, which are intended to sound out the possibilities for cooperation and, if fruitful, would lead to full coalition talks.

The Social Democrat delegation will be headed by Lars Klingbeil, who will be joined by popular Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and other national and regional party heavyweights, German media reported.

On the conservative side, the initial meeting would be led by Merz and his top ally, the CSU chief and state premier of Bavaria, Markus Soeder.

Merz said Tuesday there was "no time to waste" and called to move quickly towards full coalition talks.

- Security, immigration, growth -

The conservative leader named three areas that would play a key role in the talks: security policy, immigration and the getting the economy going again.

The second point in particular threatens to be particularly thorny. The CDU/CSU promised an immediate crackdown on immigration during the campaign, with Merz calling for all undocumented foreigners to be turned away at the border, including asylum seekers.

The Social Democrats said the conservatives' plans flew in the face of EU law, while also pledging themselves to tighten border controls.

New Social Democrat parliamentary leader Klingbeil, who is set to play a key role in the talks, also urged speed, so that a government could be formed quickly.

He called for confidentiality during talks, warning that "suggestions that I hear about publicly in the newspaper are automatically off the table".

Despite being humbled at the polls, the SPD will want to come out of the talks with something to show for their voters.

The upcoming talks would be about making sure Germany "remains a strong country", Klingbeil said Wednesday, including making business more competitive and securing jobs.

"It is about ensuring that people who work hard have more money in their pocket," he said.

D. O'Sullivan--BTZ