Germany was gripped by a fresh political crisis on Tuesday after a senior conservative announced he would not serve in a ”grand coalition” under Angela Merkel.
On Tuesday night Edmund Stoiber said that the basis of the grand coalition had disappeared. His Bavarian party colleague Michael Glos would now take up the post of economics minister instead, he said. ”I have come to the conclusion that as leader I can represent my party’s interests better in Munich,” he added.
His announcement came a day after Franz Müntefering, the Social Democrat chairman, plunged his party into disarray by announcing that he would step down. The resignation came after his preferred candidate for general secretary was beaten by a leftwinger, Andrea Nahles. Nahles on Tuesday said she might resign as well.
Müntefering had been leading coalition talks with Merkel following September’s deadlocked general election, when neither of Germany’s big parties managed to win a clear majority.
Commentators on Tuesday said they had serious doubts whether a grand coalition led by Merkel would now happen. It was also unclear if Merkel would become chancellor on November 22.
”If the grand coalition doesn’t work and there is no other coalition then we will probably have new elections on March 26 next year,” Professor Jürgen Falter, from Mainz University, said. ”The SPD must fear this option. They don’t have an attractive candidate. And they are likely to get the blame for making people vote again.”
Other analysts warned that the crisis made it less likely that Merkel would become chancellor
”Ms Merkel appears to be losing all the people who can help her get into the chancellery,” Professor Nils Diederich, of Berlin’s Free University, said. Stoiber, premier of Bavaria, and Müntefering were seen to have a close working relationship, despite being from rival parties.
Müntefering said on Tuesday he was now not certain whether he would serve in Merkel’s Cabinet as vice-chancellor, a move that appeared to leave the SPD without a functioning leadership after the decision by Germany’s current chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, to retire.
The CSU and Merkel’s Christian Democrats are sister parties, but Stoiber has been a prickly and often unreliable partner. On Tuesday he said he had decided not to take part because of Müntefering’s departure, and the fact that the SPD appeared to be drifting to the left.
All of this is bad news for British Prime Minister Tony Blair who is trying to agree an EU budget deal next month. He had been hoping that Merkel would have become chancellor by then. It now seems possible that Schröder — who will carry on as caretaker leader — will carry out talks instead.
”There isn’t much prospect now that Blair will get a deal,” Professor Falter said. ”I think the timetable for coalition negotiations will almost certainly slip … Instead Blair will have to deal with the lame duck [Schröder] again.”
The newspaper Bild summed up the drama, asking on its front page: ”Have all our politicians gone mad?” Three of the politicians negotiating the grand coalition — Müntefering, Stoiber, Schröder — had all fallen on their swords, leaving Merkel in a ”hopeless” position.
”Right now, it is an open question whether there will be this grand coalition,” Jürgen Rüttgers, the Christian Democrat governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told ARD television. The SPD ”must now create clarity,” he added.
SPD leaders met again on Tuesday. Two state premiers — Rhineland-Palatinate’s Kurt Beck and Brandenburg’s Matthias Platzeck — are possible successors to Müntefering. – Guardian Unlimited Â