Conservative leader Angela Merkel said on Monday she will be the next chancellor of Germany at the head of a coalition uniting the country’s two main parties, and will focus on reviving the economy.
“The union will occupy the chancellery,” Merkel said, in a reference to her Christian Democratic Union after striking a power-sharing deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Merkel said the agreement will pave the way for formal coalition talks and see her party take six ministries, with Schröder’s SPD getting eight Cabinet posts.
“We have achieved something big, we have the basis for coalition talks,” a straight-faced Merkel told a press conference, adding that the new government will press ahead with reforms to revive the ailing German economy.
“We agree we have no alternative to the reform process. We have set our aim to create a coalition that stands for new policies,” she added. “We want to work together for the people of this country.”
Under the deal, which has to be formally approved by the parties after its endorsement on Monday by their respective executive councils, Merkel will become the first female chancellor in German history.
Pressed by reporters about how she felt, Merkel finally broke into a smile.
“I feel good, but a lot of work lies ahead of us,” she said.
The agreement ends three weeks of political stalemate after a September 18 general election that left neither major party able to form a government with its preferred partners.
For Merkel, a Protestant pastor’s daughter who grew up in former communist East Germany, it caps a remarkable rise through the conservative ranks.
For Schröder, Monday’s announcement ends a seven-year stint as chancellor of Europe’s biggest economy at the head of a centre-left coalition government with the Greens, who for their part now return to opposition.
No part for Schröder
Schröder will not play a role in the country’s new coalition government under conservative leader Angela Merkel, sources in the SPD said on Monday.
They said Schröder informed the SPD leadership that he will not fill any post in the left-right government that Merkel will lead, despite appeals from among the Social Democrats that he become vice-chancellor.
Schröder reportedly told the party: “It is not part of my plans. My career is going in another direction.”
But SPD party chief Franz Muentefering refused to say whether Schröder has relinquished any possible role in a coalition government, telling reporters: “Neither he nor I have raised the subject.”
He said Schröder will help the party conduct the upcoming coalition talks with Merkel’s Christian Democrat alliance.
“He will continue to help the SPD in the next round of coalition talks,” Muentefering said. — AFP