German SPD leader backs coalition talks with Merkel
BONN 21 Jan (ANA) - Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz made an impassioned appeal to his party on Sunday to give the go-ahead for formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, a move that would bring Germany a step closer to a stable government.


Schulz is facing a backlash from the Social Democrats’ (SPD) left and youth wings, which argue the party should reinvent itself in opposition after scoring its worst election result in September since Germany became a federal republic in 1949.

Speaking in Bonn, where late SPD chancellors Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt earned reputations as international statesmen while ruling former West Germany, Schulz implored delegates to allow the SPD to serve as Merkel’s junior coalition partner again - a sign of how far the party’s fortunes have fallen.

“The SPD must and will be visible, audible and recognizable!” Schulz, sounding hoarse after a week of lobbying delegates, said to loud applause at the packed World Conference Center in the former capital city. “We ask for your consent to start coalition negotiations.”

Around 600 delegates met at the special party congress in Bonn to debate and vote on whether their leaders should push ahead with formal coalition talks on renewing an alliance with Merkel’s conservatives that took office in 2013.(ANA)
FA/ANA/21 January 2018-----