Sigmar Gabriel. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel stated in an interview on Wednesday he didn’t believe the Social Democrats (SPD) could be the strongest party in the September 24th election. Gabriel said a grand coalition after the election would be “pointless” because the SPD party wouldn’t be able to nominate a chancellor as a junior partner. He said he therefore couldn’t foresee the continuation of the Social Democrats working alongside Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) party. Thus the SPD would have to win more votes than Merkel’s CDU party and Bavarian sister party CSU for leader Martin Schulz to get the top job.

Source: The Local August 31, 2017 13:46 UTC