Enlarge imageBy Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) were set to nominate a young state premier from the former East Germany on Wednesday as party leader in an attempt to rejuvenate hopes of a coalition government.
Efforts to forge a right-left "grand coalition" of conservatives (CDU/CSU) and SPD suffered a setback on Monday when SPD chief Franz Muentefering said he would step aside as party leader.
That prompted the influential conservative premier of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, to bow out of the government.
But after an SPD crisis meeting on Tuesday, the 51-year-old premier of the state of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, said he would run for the post of SPD chairman at a party congress later this month.
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Germany’s conservatives and the SPD were forced into talks after an indecisive general election last month, with both camps under pressure to reach a consensus on policies before a self-imposed November 12 deadline.
With a dozen key SPD leaders pledging to back him, Platzeck 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.
Platzeck, who could become the first SPD leader from the former East Germany, is seen as a unifying force to heal the rift between the centre-left party’s left wing and more centrist elements.
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.
ECONOMY MINISTER
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), the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrats (CDU).
He said Michael Glos, a top CSU figure in parliament, would take his spot as economy minister.
Stoiber has been a staunch ally of the CDU leader and chancellor-designate Angela Merkel since an inconclusive September 18 election forced the CDU/CSU and SPD into coalition talks.
He had also played a leading role in the negotiations and his decision to back out could complicate Merkel’s 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, Merkel 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.
Should the CDU/CSU talks with the SPD 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.
That could have a negative impact on the European Union’s largest economy, which has one of the lowest growth rates in the 25-nation EU.
