Delegates at the SPD conference in Berlin rejected a motion to immediately quit the coalition, averting a political crisis. "I was and remain sceptical about the future of this grand coalition," Esken told the conference. But the coalition remains on wobbly ground with many younger, leftwing SPDers preferring a clean break with the Merkel era. Senior figures from Merkel's CDU and her Bavarian CSU sister party meanwhile have balked at the idea of renegotiating the hard-fought coalition agreement clinched after 2017's inconclusive general elections. They also want to rethink Germany's Hartz IV unemployment and welfare system -- which was pushed through by former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder but remains hugely controversial.

Source: The Local December 06, 2019 19:30 UTC