Enlarge imageBy Noah Barkin
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s top parties pledged on Tuesday to press on with trying to form a government as fears grew that the withdrawal of the powerful conservative Bavarian premier, Edmund Stoiber, would doom coalition plans.
Efforts to forge a right-left "grand coalition" of conservatives (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) suffered a setback on Monday when SPD chief Franz Muentefering announced he would step aside as party leader.
But the SPD moved quickly to avert an escalation of the tension in their party created by Muentefering’s shock decision. After a party crisis meeting, 51-year-old premier of the state of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, said he was ready to run for the post of SPD chairman at a party congress later this month.
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Platzeck, who could become the first SPD leader from the former East Germany, has been tipped for a high office in the party since he ended a string of poll routs for the SPD by retaining control of the eastern state of Brandenburg last year.
He said a dozen key SPD leaders had pledged to back him at a party convention later this month and vowed to help create a stable coalition government with CDU/CSU.
"We want negotiations on building a government to move ahead swiftly," Platzeck told reporters.
Muentefering said he would participate in a government but his resignation prompted Stoiber to abandon his plan to serve as economy minister, deepening the sense of crisis.
"The course of the SPD and its reliability is not so clear anymore," Stoiber told reporters after a meeting of his Christian Social Union (CSU). He said Michael Glos, a top CSU figure in parliament, would take his spot as economy minister.
QUESTIONS ABOUT STOIBER
Stoiber has been a staunch ally of conservative leader and chancellor-designate Angela Merkel since an inconclusive September 18 election forced the top two parties into coalition talks.
He had also played a leading role in the negotiations and his decision to back out could complicate her efforts to seal a coalition deal. From his stronghold in Munich, Stoiber may also emerge as a tough Merkel critic should she become chancellor as head of a fragile coalition.
In a brief statement on Tuesday, she said she accepted Stoiber’s decision and pledged to push ahead with negotiations, while admitting the task had become difficult.
"I sense a desire in the SPD to continue the talks on forming a grand coalition. Based on that, I am still assuming we can bring these talks to a successful conclusion," she said.
Germany’s conservatives and the SPD were forced into talks after the general election result left them with few viable alternatives for a stable government.
Those talks have now entered a crucial phase, with both camps under pressure to reach a consensus on policies before a self-imposed November 12 deadline.
Muentefering threw those plans into disarray by announcing he would step aside after SPD members voted down his candidate for the party’s number two job.
In a letter to the party on Tuesday, he left open the possibility of serving in a future coalition government, but the damage may already be done.
Should the talks collapse, the big parties could explore other alliance possibilities with smaller parties like the Free Democrats (FDP) or Greens. If those efforts were to fail, the country could face new elections.
(Additional reporting by Markus Krah and Louis Charbonneau)
