BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats embarked Sunday on a final push for an agreement on a new German government, though negotiators appeared likely to need one more day. The effort to put together a governing coalition is already post-World War II Germany’s longest and won’t finish with these talks. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union, and the Social Democrats set Sunday as a deadline to wrap up negotiations, though they have budgeted two extra days as a precaution. Senior Social Democrat lawmaker Hubertus Heil told ARD television that “a few central sticking points” remain. Failure to reach an agreement, or a deal’s rejection by Social Democrat members, would leave a minority government under Merkel or a new election as the only viable governing options.

Source: National Post February 04, 2018 08:33 UTC