Germany’s CDU and SPD to start coalition talks Friday

BERLIN — Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and center-left Social Democrats (SPD) will begin talks on Friday to explore forming a coalition, both parties told POLITICO.

The parties took the decision to start talks Friday instead of the following week to avoid prolonging political uncertainty, according to German tabloid Bild.

The talks will be led by CDU leader Friedrich Merz and SPD chair Lars Klingbeil.

The SPD leadership met Thursday to finalize their negotiation strategy. The party delegation will include eight senior SPD officials along with Secretary General Matthias Miersch. Key figures on the team include Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, SPD deputy chair and labor minister Hubertus Heil, and co-chair Saskia Esken.

The CDU negotiation team initially numbered six men, including Merz, the leader of sister party CSU Markus Söder, and CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann. The exclusion of women from the original squad drew blowback, prompting the subsequent inclusion of female representatives, Bild reported. 

The early talks mark a significant step toward the formation of Germany’s next government following the snap Feb. 23 election, in which no party secured a clear majority. While the CDU emerged as the strongest force, a CDU-SPD alliance is seen as the only means to achieve a two-party coalition that excludes the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which finished second in the ballot.

All other parties that won seats in parliament have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.